Special in this issue

23 BEA's Preliminary Strategic Plan for 2001-2005 (PDF)

BEA has developed a preliminary strategic plan that outlines the major focus of the Bureau's work in the next several years. The principal goals consist of making BEA's economic accounts and services more responsive to customers; improving the methodologies, source data, and technologies used to prepare the national, industry, international, and regional accounts; attracting, developing, and retaining a top-notch workforce; and upgrading resource management to support these initiatives. The preliminary plan is presented here as part of BEA's effort to solicit public review and comment.

 

71 Upcoming Changes in the NAICS-Based 1997 Benchmark Input-Output Accounts (PDF)

This note describes the effects of presenting the 1997 benchmark input-output accounts, which are scheduled to be released at the end of 2002, on a NAICS basis.

Regular features

1 Business Situation (PDF)

Real GDP declined 1.1 percent in the third quarter of 2001, according to the "preliminary" estimate, after four quarters of anemic growth. The "advance" estimate issued a month earlier had shown a 0.4-percent decline. The downward revision was primarily accounted for by a downward revision to the change in private nonfarm inventories and an upward revision to imports of goods. Corporate profits decreased $63.1 billion (8.3 percent at a quarterly rate); about $40 billion of the decrease reflected a reduction in the profits of insurance carriers as a result of the payment of insurance benefits associated with the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The fiscal position of the Federal Government swung sharply from a current surplus of $186.7 billion in the second quarter to a current deficit of $10.2 billion in the third; the downswing reflected the effects of advance refund checks sent to taxpayers in the third quarter. The State and local government current surplus decreased from $21.3 billion to $2.2 billion.

41 Annual Input-Output Accounts of the U.S. Economy, 1998 (PDF)

The 1998 input-output (I-O) accounts, the third annual update of the 1992 benchmark I-O accounts, present a detailed picture of how industries interact to provide input to, and take output from, each other. The 1998 estimates show the continued long-term structural shift in the economy toward the use of services and the rapid growth in the demand for fixed investment commodities, at more than twice the growth rate in the demand for all commodities. In addition, intermediate consumption of business services grew more than 12 percent in 1998, almost five times faster than the growth of intermediate consumption of all other commodities.

Reports and statistical presentations

18 Updated NIPA Tables (PDF)

22 Federal Personal Income Tax Liabilities and Payments, 1959-99 (PDF)

74 Errata: U.S. International Services (PDF)

78 Subject Guide for 2001 (PDF)

80 Schedule of BEA News Releases in 2002 (PDF)

Note:   Files listed above contain the text and the tables of the articles;
many tables are also available in XLS spreadsheets.

Looking Ahead

Evaluation of the GDP Estimates. An article presenting the results of a periodic evaluation of BEA's estimates of GDP, gross domestic income, and their components will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Survey . In this article, the reliability of the estimates will be assessed by examining the record of revisions to the annual and quarterly estimates.