The BEA Wire | BEA's Official Blog

As the fictional great detective Sherlock Holmes put it, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has quoted: “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”

Arts and cultural economic activity, adjusted for inflation, grew 2.5 percent in 2013, according to estimates of the industries’ real value added by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That compares with a 1.1 percent increase in 2012.

The U.S. international trade deficit increased in 2015 according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau. The deficit increased from $508.3 billion in 2014 to $531.5 billion in 2015, as exports decreased more than imports. As a percentage of U.S.

The U.S. monthly international trade deficit increased in December 2015 according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau. The deficit increased from $42.2 billion in November (revised) to $43.4 billion in December, as exports decreased and imports increased.

Personal income increased 0.3 percent in December, the same increase as in November. Wages and salaries, the largest component of personal income, increased 0.2 percent in December after increasing 0.5 percent in November.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent.

Health care is an industry that many of us experience firsthand, whether receiving treatment for an illness or injury or simply getting an annual check-up. In the third quarter of 2015, health care and social assistance was the second-leading contributor to the 2 percent increase in the U.S.

Retail trade; health care and social assistance; and agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting were the leading contributors to the increase in U.S. economic growth in the third quarter of 2015.

American Samoa’s economy grew 1.6 percent in 2014, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported today.

The estimate is for real GDP, which is adjusted to remove price changes. For comparison, real GDP for the United States (excluding U.S. territories) increased 2.4 percent in 2014.

The U.S. monthly international trade deficit decreased in November 2015 according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau. The deficit decreased from $44.6 billion in October (revised) to $42.4 billion in November, as exports decreased less than imports.

The U.S. net international investment position was -$7,269.8 billion (preliminary) at the end of the third quarter of 2015 as the value of U.S. liabilities exceeded the value of U.S. assets. At the end of the second quarter, the net investment position was -$6,743.1 billion (revised).