Third Estimate 4Q2015 GDP Revised Upward. Corporate Profits Down.

Written by Doug Short and Steven Hansen

The third estimate of fourth quarter 2014 Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was revised upward to 1.4 %. This improvement was mainly due to upward revisions to personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and to exports.

The market expected:

Headline GDP is calculated by annualizing one quarter’s data against the previous quarters data (and the previous quarter was relatively strong in this instance). A better method would be to look at growth compared to the same quarter one year ago. For 4Q2015, the year-over-year growth is 2.0 % – down from 3Q2015’s 2.1 % year-over-year growth. So one might say that GDP decelerated 0.1 % from the previous quarter.

Real GDP Expressed As Year-over-Year Change

This third estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the “second” estimate issued last month. (See caveats below.)

Real GDP is inflation adjusted and annualized – the economy declined on a per capita basis.

Real GDP per Capita

The table below compares the 3Q2015 third estimate of GDP (Table 1.1.2) with 4Q2015 GDP which shows:

• consumption for goods and services declined.
• trade balance degraded
• there was inventory change removing 0.22% from GDP
• there was significantly slower fixed investment growth
• there was reduction in government spending

The arrows in the table below highlight significant differences between 3Q2015 and 4Q2015 (green is good influence, and red is a negative influence).

The arrows in the table below highlight significant differences between the second and third estimates (green is good influence, and red is a negative influence).

From the Advance Estimate

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from the second estimate:

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from the third estimate:

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What the BEA says about the third estimate of GDP:

Real gross domestic product — the value of the goods and services produced by the nation’s economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production, adjusted for price changes — increased at an annual rate of 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to the “third” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent.

The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter reflected positive contributions from PCE, residential fixed investment, and federal government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from nonresidential fixed investment, exports, private inventory investment, and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.

The deceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected downturns in nonresidential fixed investment and in state and local government spending, a deceleration in PCE, and a downturn in exports that were partly offset by a smaller decrease in private inventory investment, a downturn in imports, and an acceleration in federal government spending.

Inflation continues to moderate as the “deflator” which adjusts the current value GDP to a “real” comparable value continues to moderate. The following compares the GDP implicit price deflator year-over-year growth to the Consumer Price Index [this puts both on the same basis for comparision]:

What the BLS says about the revision from the second to the third estimate:

The upward revision to the percent change in real GDP primarily reflected upward revisions to personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and to exports that were partly offset by a downward revision to private inventory investment.

In the same release, corporate profits data was released showing less growth in 2Q2015.

Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation adjustment (IVA) and capital consumption adjustment (CCAdj)) decreased $159.6 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with a decrease of $33.0 billion in the third.

Profits of domestic financial corporations decreased $24.0 billion in the fourth quarter, in contrast to an increase of $1.8 billion in the third. Profits of domestic nonfinancial corporations decreased $129.2 billion, compared with a decrease of $11.8 billion. The rest-of-the-world component of profits decreased $6.5 billion, compared with a decrease of $23.1 billion. This measure is calculated as the difference between receipts from the rest of the world and payments to the rest of the world. In the fourth quarter, receipts decreased $22.4 billion, and payments decreased $16.0 billion.

Taxes on corporate income decreased $32.2 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with a decrease of $6.9 billion in the third. Profits after tax with IVA and CCAdj decreased $127.4 billion, compared with a decrease of $26.2 billion.

Dividends decreased $15.1 billion in the fourth quarter, in contrast to an increase of $26.0 billion in the third. Undistributed profits decreased $112.2 billion, compared with a decrease of $52.2 billion. Net cash flow with IVA — the internal funds available to corporations for investment — decreased $101.6 billion, compared with a decrease of $35.1 billion.

Overview Analysis:

Here is a look at Quarterly GDP since Q2 1947. Prior to 1947, GDP was calculated annually. To be more precise, the chart shows is the annualized percent change from the preceding quarter in Real (inflation-adjusted) Gross Domestic Product. We’ve also included recessions, which are determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Also illustrated are the 3.24% average (arithmetic mean) and the 10-year moving average, currently at 1.41 percent.

Note: The headline 1.4% GDP is 1.39% at two decimal places.

Here is a log-scale chart of real GDP with an exponential regression, which helps us understand growth cycles since the 1947 inception of quarterly GDP. The latest number puts us 14.6% below trend, the largest negative spread in the history of this series.

A particularly telling representation of slowing growth in the US economy is the year-over-year rate of c

And for a bit of political trivia, here is a look at GDP by party in control of the White House and Congress.

The chart below is a way to visualize real GDP change since 2007. The chart uses a stacked column chart to segment the four major components of GDP with a dashed line overlay to show the sum of the four, which is real GDP itself. As the analysis clear shows, personal consumption is key factor in GDP mathematics.

Caveats on the Use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

GDP is market value of all final goods and services produced within the USA where money is used in the transaction – and it is expressed as an annualized number. GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports), or GDP = C + I + G + (X – M). GDP counts monetary expenditures. It is designed to count value added so that goods are not counted over and over as they move through the manufacture – wholesale – retail chain.

The vernacular relating to the different GDP releases:

“Advance” estimates, based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency, are released near the end of the first month after the end of the quarter; as more detailed and more comprehensive data become available, “second” and “third” estimates are released near the end of the second and third months, respectively. The “latest” estimates reflect the results of both annual and comprehensive revisions.

Consider that GDP includes the costs of suing your neighbor or McDonald’s for hot coffee spilled in your crotch, plastic surgery or cancer treatment, buying a new aircraft carrier for the military, or even the replacement of your house if it burns down – yet little of these activities is real economic growth.

GDP does not include include home costs (other than the new home purchase price even though mortgaged up the kazoo), interest rates, bank charges, or the money spent buying anything used.

It does not measure wealth, disposable income, or employment.

In short, GDP does not measure the change of the economic environment for Joe Sixpack, and Joe Sixpack’s kid, yet pundits continuously compare GDP across time periods.

Although there always will be some correlation between all economic pulse points, GDP does not measure the economic elements that directly impact the quality of life of its citizens.

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