The principal component of BEA's statistics is the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), which produces estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) and other related measures. Also, the BEA prepares national, regional, industry, and international accounts that contain vital information on important matters such as economic growth, regional economic development, and the relative position of the United States in the world economy.

Four Programs

• National Accounts: This program keeps track of domestic U.S. production (that is, estimates of gross domestic product or GDP), consumption, investment, exports and imports, and national and domestic income and saving. The National Income and Product Accounts are aggregated measures of production and income derived from production.


• Regional Accounts: This program produces detailed data on economic activity by region, state, metropolitan area, and county. This program produces estimates of personal income by state, county and metropolitan area and also produces annual estimates of gross state product by industry.


• Industry Accounts: This program produces the input-output tables, which show the buying and selling interaction among industries. These data show how industries sell inputs to, and buy output from, each other. They also contain information about the contributions by private industries and government to GDP, that is, they show disaggregate GDP by industry.


• International Accounts: This program produces the quarterly balance of payments accounts, which provide a comprehensive summary of economic transactions between the United States and other countries. This program also prepares reports on the international investment position accounts as well as estimates of U.S. direct investment abroad and foreign direct investment in the United States.

Two Committees

• Advisory Committee: This committee advises the Director of BEA about the development and improvement of BEA accounts. It pays particular attention to information about the new and rapidly growing economic activities that arise from innovation and technological change. The BEA Advisory Committee meets twice yearly.


• Federal Economics Statistics Advisory Committee: This committee inspects BEA programs and provides advice on statistical methodology, research, and other technical matters related to the collection, tabulation, and analysis of economic statistics. This committee also advises the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of the Census.