GDP per inhabitant

Current prices

Economic measure of a variable at a specific moment that reflects increases due to real variation and variations in price.

Gross domestic product (GDP)

Valuation of the final result of the production activity of a territory. It is calculated on the basis of the total production of goods and services, subtracting intermediate consumption and adding net taxes applied to products.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the final result of the production activity of the production units in a territory. There are three vantage points for analysing GDP: supply, demand and income. From the standpoint of supply, GDP makes it possible to evaluate the contributions made by the different productive branches to the economy as a whole (gross added value of agriculture, industry, construction and services). In order to conduct the analysis from the standpoint of the end-use of the goods and services produced (consumption, investment, external sector), GDP calculated from the demand side is used. Finally, from the income standpoint GDP makes it possible to give a breakdown of the contribution made by the productive factors to production: compensation of wage-earners (labour), gross operating surplus (capital) and mixed income.

The variables that are included in the GDP in terms of supply are the following:

• Agriculture (which includes agriculture, animal, forestry and fishing).
• Industry and manufacturing industry.
• Construction.
• Services (branches of NACE 2009 revisión 2. G, H and I: Trade, accommodation, financial and other services; Public adm., education, health and social services; Real state, professional and other activities).
• Gross value added.
• Net taxes on products.

Detailed results on forty-four activity branches can be found in Annual economic accounts for Catalonia.

The variables included in the GDP from the perspective of demand are:

• Household consumer expenditure.
• Public administration consumer expenditure (which includes the non-profit institutions serving households consumer.
• The gross capital formation (disaggregated between capital goods and other assets and construction, which also includes variation in stocks).
• Exports and imports of goods and services.
• The external balance (the result of the aggregation of the foreign balance and the balance with the rest of Spain).

The balances associated to foreign trade are presented as contributions and not as growth rates since the extent of their variations would distort the results and make them difficult to understand. Contributions to the growth of GDP are calculated by comparing the increase in each variable with its relative importance for the previous period.

The method used to calculate volume growth is based on a system in which the reference for each year's growth is the structure at current prices of the previous year. This methodological option allows for better calculation of variations in GDP volume, in that it overcomes the obsolescence-related problems concerning the base year's productive structure when said structure differs from the reference year.

Given the different calendar of availability of the magnitudes estimated by the INE and the Idescat and with the end to preserve the temporary congruence of the economic series, the Spanish data update simultaneously to the Catalan data.

The annual estimates based on 2010 GDP and its supply, demand and income components are final for the 2000-2011 period and the estimates of later years are provisional, therefore they are susceptible to be revised. The estimates of 2015 and 2016 are advances taken from short-term indicators.

The Economic Accounts of Catalonia change their accounting base to adopt the year 2010 as new reference. Changes in accounting base in the context of national accounts estimates have a twofold objective.

1. To allow internationally agreed methodological criteria to be updated and standardised. To this end, 2010 saw two relevant changes:

1.1 The processing of research and development activity. According to the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010), research and development activity may be considered an asset. As such, investment and GDP will increase. Under the previous system, research and development was considered an expense.

1.2 Processing of illegal activities. This is a methodological change introduced in accounting base 2010, but which is not tied to the ESA 2010. Three types of illegal activities have been estimated and published in a differentiated manner: prostitution, drug trafficking and tobacco contraband.

2. To allow statistical changes in estimation sources and methods to be introduced, so as to obtain highly accurate measures of the economic activity generated within a territory. The variables, sources and operational methodology are defined the Economic Accounts of Catalonia, alongside a brief explanation on the problems stemming from linking accounting bases.

Unavailable information is represented using the symbol ":". When the value is lower than that of the minimum unit to be able to estimate the statistical operation or if it effects statistical confidentiality, the symbol used is "..".