Economic Times: US Economy Health
By: Dana Mefferd
Inflation
Inflation is the rise in prices. The latest annual inflation fate for the US is 1.2% through the 12 months ended in September 2013. in the year of 2007 it was at 4.1% then dropped dramatically in 2008 to 0.1%. Ever since the year of 2011 it has been steadily decreasing. This means that prices are slowly decreasing.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
GDP is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period. In 2012 the US GDP was $15,684,800,000,000.
Unemployment
Unemployment is the amount of people who are without jobs. In the month of September, 2013, the US unemployment rate was 7.2%. The unemployment rate has decreased by 0.9% since the month or January, 2013. This means that there are more jobs being created.
Forecast: Contraction or Expansion?
By looking at this data I believe that the US economy is in an expansion. We are slowly getting better and improving our country. Our unemployment rate is slowly decreasing every month. This means more jobs are being created. Sure, our inflation is decreasing every so slowly but it is not decreasing dramatically. We may not be expanding, or getting better, as fast as some people might like but we are getting there.