The main measure of aggregate economic activity is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP measures economic activity that takes place during a specific time period.

Nominal GDP measures economic activity in current prices, i.e. in the prices of the year that the economic activity took place. The variation of nominal GDP over time is due to changes in economic activity and due to changes in the price level (inflation). The next graph presents the evolution of nominal GDP.

Real GDP measures economic activity in constant prices of some baseline year. The variation of real GDP over time is due to variation in economic activity only, since prices are constant by construction. For this reason, real GDP provides a more accurate measure of the evolution of economic activity. The next graph presents the evolution of real GDP.

The most common indicator to measure the evolution of economic activity is the growth rate of GDP. The next graph presents the year-on-year growth rate of GDP in current prices (nominal GDP) and in constant prices (real GDP).

A further measure of economic activity is GDP per capita, which is equal to GDP divided by population (i.e. average GDP per person). The variation in GDP per capita over time is due to changes in GDP and changes in population. The next graph presents the evolution of per capita GDP in nominal terms and real (inflation-adjusted) terms.

The main measure of living standards is consumption per capita. The next graph presents the evolution of per capita consumption in nominal terms and real terms.