GDP data “encouraging”

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced today that Gross Domestic Product increased 2.3 percent in the Northern Marianas in 2010. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan said he was encouraged to see an uptick in GDP after six straight years of declines, including a drop of 19 percent in 2009.

“It is encouraging to see that economic activity picked up in 2010,” Congressman Sablan said. “We need all the encouragement we can get after years of economic decline.

“But looking around today, many people would say that our current economy is still getting worse, not better.

“GDP is half what is was in 2002. So we still have a long way to go to fixing our economy.

“But, at least in 2010, we had some growth.”

The Bureau of Economic Analysis calculated that GDP in the Northern Marianas was $1.2 billion in 2002. The 2010 number is $619 million.

Gross Domestic Product is a measure of consumer spending, investment, government consumption, and net exports.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, began compiling GDP data for the Northern Marianas and other U.S. insular areas in 2009 with funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs.

The 2010 analysis includes greater detail than previous years’ work. Compensation of employees is now part of the BEA report; and, as with GDP, compensation increased. From 2009 to 2010 total compensation rose by $20 million with half of the increase in the private sector and half in local government.

The next release of GDP data – for 2011 – is planned for the spring of 2013.