What is GDP?

By Deputy editor Tim Bennett Jan 24, 2013

Tim Bennett

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Gross domestic product measures a country's economic health. Tim Bennett explains how it works and asks how useful it really is.


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Published in Video tutorials | More articles by Tim Bennett

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  • 1. gaurav singh

    (27 January 2013, 04:57AM)  Complain about this comment

    Hi tim, how about a video on capital adequacy ratio.

  • 2. A video on Modern Portfolio Theory woudl be wonderul please

    (01 March 2013, 12:47PM)  Complain about this comment

    I find your videos wonderfully informative enabling the learner to absorb at a practical level

  • 3. Mike

    (02 March 2013, 03:59PM)  Complain about this comment

    Thank you Tim. Excellent as always.
    Could you some time do a video explaining real government expenditure as a percentage of GDP i.e. inflation adjusted? Seems to me we are not cutting spending in real terms when I look at the official figures over the last 15 years or so. We are instead cutting the increase in government spending (hasn't this always been the more accurate description of spending cuts?). This is not what we want to hear or indeed what most people feel every day but our spending is now a whopping 45% of GDP v. 35% 15 years ago. No wonder we're broke and that we keep wanting growth to make the figures look relatively better. The 3 biggest areas in public sector spending are Pensions, the NHS and Welfare. Is any political party going to really tackle this? Unlikely.

  • 4. Stephen Watson

    (26 April 2013, 03:04PM)  Complain about this comment

    So, if I import a product for £10 and flog it to you for £20, that counts as GDP of £10 - your spending versus cost of imports. But actually, the UK is down £10 and has produced nothing. It doesn't seem that GDP actually measures production in any meaningful sense.

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