Description
Global GDP represents the total value of all final goods and services produced in a country during a given period. The GDP measure includes all economic activity within the borders of a country, including exports and imports. It is calculated without taking deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for the depletion and degradation of natural resources. GDP is measured at market exchange rates or purchasing power parity (PPP) equivalents, and is normally reported in billions of dollars. Dollar figures for GDP are converted from domestic currencies using single year official exchange rates where available, or alternatively using alternative conversion factors.
GDP includes C (consumption), I (investment), and G (government spending). C consists of private final consumption expenditure, which encompasses all personal expenditure on goods and services except investment spending by government or transfer payments to others, such as unemployment benefits or social security payments. I consists of fixed capital formation, such as the construction of factories and machinery, and inventories. G consists of public spending on final goods and services, which in most countries includes salaries paid to public servants and the purchases of weapons for the military, but excludes transfer payments.
This table shows the contribution of different explanatory variables to the evolution of GDP growth over the course of the pandemic. The results suggest that COVID-19 deaths contributed very little to the collapse in GDP in 2020 H1 and the subsequent recovery in GDP growth in 2021 Q3. Instead, the major contributions to quarter-to-quarter changes in GDP in this period appear to have been increases in the stringency of lockdown restrictions on trade, and reversals of those tightening measures.
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