National Income and its measurement (GDP, NDP, GNP, NNP, PCI, GVA, Green GDP)

Every February, news channels argue over whether the economy "grew" enough. What they are arguing about is a single number — national income — built from formulae that look intimidating on the page but are really just careful bookkeeping: count what was produced, subtract what wore out, add what citizens earned abroad, divide by how many people there are. Once you can do that bookkeeping, the headline stops being noise.

In two minutes

National income is the total value of goods and services a country produces in a year, and GDP, GNP, NDP, NNP, PCI, GVA and Green GDP are different, precisely related ways of stating that same underlying value.

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