The BEA Wire | BEA's Official Blog

State Personal Income: First Quarter 2013

State personal income declined an average 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013 after growing 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. Personal income declines ranged from 0.1 percent in Iowa to 2.5 percent in Wyoming. In contrast, personal income grew 1.6 percent in South Dakota, the only state with an increase in the first quarter. Inflation, as measured by the national price index for personal consumption expenditures, slowed to 0.2…

Consumer Spending Turns Up in May

Personal income increased 0.5 percent in May after increasing 0.1 percent in April. Wages and salaries, the largest component of personal income, increased 0.3 percent in May after increasing 0.1 percent in April. Services industries’ payrolls accelerated. Good industries’ payrolls turned up.

Current-dollar disposable personal income (DPI),after-tax income, increased 0.5 percent in May after increasing 0.1 percent in April.

GDP Growth Picks Up in First Quarter

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013 after increasing 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the third estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The first quarter growth rate was revised down 0.6 percentage point from the second estimate released in May.

GDP highlights

Value of Foreign Investments in the United States Increased and Value of U.S. Investments Abroad Decreased in First Quarter 2013

The U.S. net international investment position was -$4,277.1 billion (preliminary) at the end of the first quarter of 2013 compared with -$3,863.9 billion (revised) at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, as the value of foreign investments in the United States exceeded the value of U.S. investments abroad.

Value of Foreign Investments in the United States Increased More Than Value of U.S. Investments Abroad in 2012

The U.S. net international investment position was -$3,863.9 billion (revised) at the end of 2012 compared with -$3,730.6 billion (revised) at the end of 2011, as the value of foreign investments in the United States exceeded the value of U.S. investments abroad.

Improved Source Data Leads to Upward Revisions to the U.S. International Investment Position

Better data generated by a new government survey drove the large upward revisions in U.S. international investment position statistics released today that trimmed the United States’ investment deficit with the rest of the world between 2010 and 2012.

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board conducted the new survey called Aggregate Holdings of Long-Term Securities by U.S. and Foreign Residents (SLT), which includes…

Travel and Tourism Spending Outpaced Growth in the Overall Economy in the First Quarter of 2013

Real spending on travel and tourism accelerated in the first quarter of 2013, increasing at an annual rate of 6.8 percent after increasing 2.1 percent (revised) in the fourth quarter of 2012. By comparison, growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 2.4 percent (second estimate) in the first quarter after increasing 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter.

BEA's Industry Economic Accounts to Hit Major Milestone

Roughly every 5 years, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) releases comprehensive revisions of its major economic accounts. These revisions are generally more detailed than annual revisions, implementing changes in methods, statistics and definitions to better reflect an ever-evolving economy. In December, BEA will release the 2013 comprehensive revision of the Industry Economic Accounts (IEAs), which includes two main sets of statistics,…

BEA to Expand Coverage of Intellectual Property Rights

Expenditures for research and development (R&D) and for entertainment, literary, and artistic originals provide long-lasting service to the businesses, nonprofit institutions, and government agencies that use them. These expenditures have many characteristics of other fixed assets—ownership rights can be established, and they are long lasting and used repeatedly in production processes. As part of its 14th comprehensive revision of the…

BEA to Move to Accrual Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension Plans

Employers provide employees with retirement benefits largely through two mechanisms: defined contribution plans like 401(k)s or defined benefit pension plans. Under defined benefit plans, employees accrue benefits based on factors such as the employee’s length of service and salary history. Employers provide these promised benefits to employees through a pension fund. Employers, and in some cases employees, make cash contributions to the…

U.S. Current-Account Deficit Increases in First Quarter 2013

The U.S. current-account deficit—the combined balances on trade in goods and services, income, and net unilateral current transfers—increased to $106.1 billion (preliminary) in the first quarter of 2013 from $102.3 billion (revised) in the fourth quarter of 2012. As a percentage of U.S. gross domestic product, the deficit increased to 2.7 percent from 2.6 percent. The previously published current-account deficit for the fourth quarter was $…

BEA Introduces New Measures of the Regional Economy

Today, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released experimental real, or inflation-adjusted, estimates of personal income for states and metropolitan areas. The inflation adjustments are based in part on regional price parities (RPPs), which provide a measure of differences in price levels across each state and region relative to the national price level for each of the years 2007–2011.