Real GDP decreased 3.8 percent after decreasing 0.5 percent in the third quarter, reflecting a downturn in exports and a much larger decrease in investment in equipment and software. In 2008, real GDP increased 1.3 percent after increasing 2.0 percent.

A guide to an important component of private business investment: structures. This article also discusses recent improvements to these statistics, which now better reflect productivity and quality changes.

A look into the ongoing research at BEA toward developing price indexes that reflect the effects of substitution in health care spending. The new indexes measure spending on bundles of treatments for diseases rather than spending on individual treatments.