Introduction
Students have already learned that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of national output and the consumer price index (CPI) reports on price changes for about 90,000 items in 364 categories. The most recent GDP and CPI figures along with other economic statistics can be found in the Economic Statistics Briefing Room on the Internet.

Lesson Description
Students will use information from the Economic Statistics Briefing Room Web site to find current economic statistics.

Previous Knowledge Expected
Students should be familiar with the following terms:
consumer price index: index used to measure price changes for a market basket of frequently used consumer items
gross domestic product: dollar value of all final goods, services, and structures produced within a country's natural borders during a one-year period

Applied Content Standards (from the National Council on Economic Education)
Standard 18: A nation's overall levels of income, employment, and prices are determined by the interaction of spending and production decisions made by all households, firms, government agencies, and others in the economy.
Standard 19: Unemployment imposes costs on individuals and nations. Unexpected inflation imposes costs on many people and benefits some others because it arbitrarily redistributes purchasing power. Inflation can reduce the rate of growth of national living standards, because individuals and organizations use resources to protect themselves against the uncertainty of future prices.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will list the current figure for Gross Domestic Product.
2. Students will list the current unemployment rate.
3. Students will list the current figure for per capita income.
4. Students will list the current statistic for U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. The latest quarterly change in real GDP will be shown in Table 1. If the quarterly changes are positive, the economy is expanding; if real GDP contracts for two consecutive quarters, the economy is in recession.
2-4: Current figures should be obtained from the Web site.

Extending the Lesson
Encourage students to read other information provided on the Economic Statistics Briefing Room site. Have students graph information they download.
Have each student select a different statistic that is listed on the site. Have students present the current figure and the importance of that figure to the class.

Student Web Activity