Gross Domestic Product

Gross Domestic Product or GDP is the amount of money a country makes from goods and services inside the country for a certain period of time, usually for a year. When GDP is calculated different sectors of economy are analyzed.

In the United Kingdom the following sectors of economy are usually analyzed: manufacturing, services (financial, professional and scientific services, leisure and tourism), energy (oil, natural gas, coal) and agriculture. In the United States the following sectors of economy are usually analyzed when the GDP is defined: construction and manufacturing; trade and finance; transport, communication and services; agriculture; and mining.

Speaking, as an example, about one of the recent year's GDP figures, the following can be quoted:

In the U.K. the services sector accounted for roughly 60 per cent of Gross Domestic Product. Manufacturing sector accounted for a small percentage of gross domestic product. Energy production sector accounted for about 8 per cent of GDP. Agriculture is only for 4 per cent of GDP. But the agricultural sector satisfies two-thirds of the country's needs. And only a small fraction of the total population, about 2 per cent, is engaged in agriculture.

In the U.S.A. the construction and manufacturing sector accounted for 40 per cent of GDP; trade and finance earned 25 per cent of GDP; transport, communication and services sector earned 20 per cent of GDP; agriculture and mining earned 5 per cent of GDP. By the way 10 per cent of the employed population of the United States is engaged in agriculture.