Hampton Roads Economic Monthly:
Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, is a representation of the total dollar value of all finished goods and services produced by an economy over a specific time period. Economists watch GDP closely, as it is a relatively straightforward way of measuring economic growth. But it doesn’t tell the entire story of how an economy is performing, which is why we also look at other indicators like employment, housing prices, tourism activity, retail sales, and more.
GDP recently made headlines when in the second quarter of 2021, national GDP levels finally rose above pre-pandemic levels measured at the end of 2019. This achievement was particularly notable given the rebound took approximately one year after the economy’s worst quarterly contraction on record. After the Great Recession officially ended in 2009, GDP took two years to fully rebound.
