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Technical Note
Gross Domestic Product
Second Quarter of 2013 (Third Estimate)
September 26, 2013
This technical note provides background information about the source data and
estimating methods used to produce the estimates presented in the GDP news release.
The complete set of estimates for the second quarter is available on BEA's Web site at
www.bea.gov; a brief summary of "highlights" is also posted on the Web site. In a few
weeks, the estimates will be published in BEA's monthly journal, the Survey of Current
Business, along with a more detailed analysis of the estimates ("GDP and the
Economy").
Sources of Revision to Real GDP
Real GDP increased 2.5 percent (annual rate) in the second quarter, the same increase
as last month’s estimate, primarily reflecting downward revisions to inventory investment
and to exports that were offset by an upward revision to state and local government
spending:
The downward revision to inventory investment primarily reflected downward
revisions to retail trade industries and to “other” industries. The revision to retail
trade industries reflected the incorporation of revised prices, and the revision to
“other” industries was based on revised second-quarter quarterly financial report
data from the Census Bureau for information industries.
The downward revision to exports reflected downward revisions to goods and to
services and was primarily based on revised data from the international
transactions accounts.
The upward revision to state and local government spending primarily reflected
an upward revision to investment in structures and was based on revised Census
construction spending data for May and June.
The price index for gross domestic purchases—the prices paid by U.S. residents for
goods and services wherever produced—increased 0.2 percent in the second quarter, a
downward revision of 0.1 percentage point. The revision was mostly accounted for by a
downward revision to PCE prices for financial services and reflected the incorporation of
newly available commercial bank Call Report data.
Gross Domestic Income and Corporate Profits
Real gross domestic income (GDI), which measures the output of the economy as the
costs incurred and the incomes earned in the production of GDP, increased 2.6 percent
in the second quarter, an upward revision of 0.1 percentage point. For a given quarter,
the estimates of GDP and GDI may differ for a variety of reasons, including the
incorporation of largely independent source data. However, over longer time spans, the
estimates of GDP and GDI tend to follow similar patterns of change.
Profits from current production increased $66.8 billion, or 3.3 percent (quarterly rate), in
the second quarter. Domestic profits of financial corporations increased $24.5 billion,
domestic profits of nonfinancial corporations increased $37.8 billion, and rest-of-theworld profits increased $4.6 billion.
Dividends paid by corporations increased $273.5 billion in the second quarter, in
contrast to a decrease of $103.8 billion in the first. The large second-quarter increase
primarily reflected dividends paid by Fannie Mae to the federal government.
Brent R. Moulton
Associate Director for National Economic Accounts
Bureau of Economic Analysis
(202) 606-9606