Briefly describe the significance of GDP

Significance and function of gross domestic product accounting. The evaluation of GDP by famous economists American economists Samuelson (Nobel laureate in economics) and nordhaus pointed out in their famous textbook Economics that GDP is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. Just as satellites in space can describe the weather conditions of the whole continent, GDP can provide a complete picture of the economic situation, which can help the President, Congress and the Federal Reserve to judge whether the economy is shrinking or expanding, whether it needs to be stimulated or controlled, and whether it is under the threat of severe recession or inflation. Without gross domestic product and other gross indicators, policy makers will fall into a chaotic digital ocean and be at a loss. Gross domestic product and related data are like lighthouses, helping decision makers to guide the economy towards major economic goals. Martin Bailey, chairman of the former US President's Council of Economic Advisers, pointed out: It is hard to imagine how I and others can talk about the American economy and business cycle without timely and accurate GDP or GNP data. Former US Treasury Secretary robert rubin pointed out: GDP accounting provides Congress and other departments with an extremely important feature of American economic health. Today, we have formulated better economic policies, because GDP accounting enables us to better understand the role of policies. We should provide more resources for the modernization of GDP accounting so that our statistical infrastructure can keep up with the rapidly developing economy. Second, judge the gross domestic product and macroeconomic operation. Economic growth rate, inflation rate and unemployment rate are three main indicators to judge macroeconomic operation. These indicators are closely related to the gross domestic product. Economic growth rate refers to constant price GDP growth rate (GDP growth rate for short). Inflation rate is generally measured by GDP deflator or consumer price index. GDP deflator is the ratio of current GDP to constant GDP in a certain period, which reflects the price changes of all commodities (including goods and services) between the base period and the current period. Consumer price index reflects the price changes of consumer goods purchased by consumers. Obviously, the GDP deflator is more representative than the consumer price index, because it not only reflects the price changes of consumer goods purchased by consumers, but also reflects the price changes of investment goods purchased by producers and the price changes of import and export products. Therefore, as the inflation rate reflecting the comprehensive price changes of a country or region, the GDP deflator is more comprehensive than the consumer price index. Unemployment rate is closely related to economic growth rate. After studying the relationship between American economic growth rate and unemployment rate, Okun revealed the following laws: △u =-0.5(Y-2.25) in the formula represents the change of unemployment rate, and Y represents the economic growth rate. This is the famous Okun's Law. It shows that when the economic growth rate is higher than 2.25%, the unemployment rate will drop. On this basis, for every percentage point increase in economic growth rate, the unemployment rate will drop by half a percentage point. When the economic growth rate is lower than 2.25%, the unemployment rate will rise. On this basis, if the economic growth rate decreases by one percentage point, the unemployment rate will increase by half a percentage point. Okun's law gives an estimation rule of the relationship between economic growth rate and unemployment rate. This is a rough approximate estimation rule. Especially based on the study of the actual situation in the United States, it may not be completely accurate for other countries. But through Okun's law, we can draw a basic conclusion: there is a close relationship between unemployment rate and economic growth rate, and the unemployment rate can be roughly judged by economic growth rate. It can be seen that doing a good job in GDP accounting is of great theoretical and practical significance for judging macroeconomic operation and formulating correct macroeconomic policies. Three. Gross Domestic Product and Macroeconomic Management Since 1985 National Bureau of Statistics established the corresponding accounting system, GDP accounting has become an important means for China's macroeconomic management departments to understand the economic operation and an important basis for formulating economic development strategies, long-term plans, annual plans and various macroeconomic policies. For example, the strategic goal of quadrupling the per capita GDP from 1 to 1980 put forward by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee is based on the accounting of GDP and the prediction of economic development. The national economic growth targets put forward by China government in the Seventh Five-Year Plan, the Eighth Five-Year Plan, the Ninth Five-Year Plan and the 20 10 long-term plan, as well as the national economic growth targets put forward in the annual plans over the years, are also based on GDP accounting and economic development forecast. Since 1998, China has adopted a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent fiscal policy, which is also closely related to the decline in economic growth and the lack of final demand reflected in China's GDP accounting. It can be seen that GDP accounting has played an important role in China's macroeconomic management. Four. Gross domestic product and foreign exchange gross domestic product accounting play an important role in foreign exchange. This can be seen from the following aspects. 1, GDP and China's international obligations Many international organizations require their member countries to pay their dues or make donations. These dues or donations are often closely related to GDP. For example, the formula for calculating the United Nations dues scale is as follows: United Nations dues scale = the proportion of a country's GNP to the world GNP ×( 1- reduction rate) reduction rate = (world per capita GNP- the country's per capita GNP)÷ world per capita GNP×85% From the above formula, it can be seen that the United Nations dues scale is closely related to a country's gross national product and per capita GNP. This fully reflects the relationship between a country's international obligations and its gross national product. 2.GDP and the preferential treatment enjoyed by a country in the world are often closely related to GDP. For example, whether you can enjoy some preferential treatment internationally is often related to the classification of national income level by the World Bank. The World Bank 1999 classifies income levels as follows: low-income countries: per capita gross national product is below $755; Low-and middle-income countries: the per capita GNP is between 756 and 2995 dollars; Middle and high income countries: the per capita GNP is between 2996 and 9265 dollars; High-income countries: GNP per capita is above $9,266. The following are some preferential policies determined by the World Bank according to the per capita GNP of 65,438+0,999: (65,438+0) If the per capita GNP is below $755, you can enjoy soft loans and 7.5% preferential policies for civil engineering bidding; (2) If the per capita GNP is between $756 and $65,438+$0,445, you can enjoy soft loans and 20-year hard loans; (3) The per capita GNP is between $65,438 and $0.446-2,995, and you can enjoy a hard loan with a term of 17; (4) If the per capita GNP is between 2996 and 5225 dollars, you can enjoy a hard loan with a term of 15 years; (5) The per capita GNP is above $5,226, and there is no hard loan. Although there are differences in the implementation of these policies, we can see the role of gross national product in the preferential policies determined by the World Bank. 3.GDP and its role in international organizations. The role a country can play in international organizations is often closely related to GDP. For example, member countries of the International Monetary Fund must subscribe for a certain share of the fund, and their share in the fund determines their voting rights, their share in the allocation of special drawing rights and their share of borrowing from the fund. The size of each member's share is determined by the board of directors of the fund considering factors such as gross national product, gold and foreign exchange reserves, import and export volume, and the proportion of exports to gross national product. On February 5, 2000/kloc-0, the board of directors of the IMF voted to increase China's share in the fund from the original 4,687.2 million SDR (about 6 1 billion US dollars) to 6,369.2 million SDR (about 8.3 billion US dollars), thus increasing China's share in the fund from the original1/kloc-. This shows that China's role in this fund is rising. Therefore, doing a good job in GDP accounting is of great practical significance for safeguarding China's economic and political interests.