[lbo-talk] Comprehensive Revision of NIPA

[Paul]

The BEA just released the first comprehensive revision of the NIPA in 4 
years.  In addition to updating the reference year from 1996 to 2000 there 
were some important methodological changes (along with the usual 
statistical updating).
http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/2003cr_newsrelease.htm

1)  Such an update might have been expected to produce a major downward 
revision in the GDP growth rate of the last year or so.  The news is that 
it did not (perhaps because of the introduction of chain-weighted indexes 
in 1996).  The methodological changes led to a modest downward revision but 
the new statistical data led to an upward revision.  So Bush can breath a 
bit easier:

"The pace of the current expansion has been revised down slightly; from the 
third quarter of

    2001 to the second quarter of 2003, the average growth rate of real GDP 
is revised from 2.7

    percent to 2.6 percent."

But note:

" Corporate profits is revised up substantially for 2002; profits of 
domestic industries as a

    percentage of gross domestic income is revised up from 6.3 percent to 
7.1 percent."

2)  For those who love data, there are also many methodological changes 
(some have said that they lean towards more neo-classical interpretations), 
revised formats of tables and other novelties.

Paul