Unit 1 Section 4 - Measuring Economic Performance

Business Cycle or Economic Cycle

Alternating periods of economic expansion and economic recession, trough and peaks

Economic Indicator

a statistic that helps assess the performance of an economy (examples: GDP, CPI, & Unemployment)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

A measurement of the total goods and services produced within a country in a year.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

statistics that measure the pace of inflation or deflation

Unemployment

Measures the number of people who are able to work, but do not have a job during a period of time.

Inflation

A general increase in prices

national debt

the total amount of money that a country's government has borrowed, the sum of all the deficits.

budget surplus

an excess of tax revenue over government spending

budget deficit

a shortfall of tax revenue from government spending

fiscal policy

the use of government spending and taxing to influence the economy

monetary policy

the Federal Reserve's actions that change the money supply to influence the economy