Business Notes Economics

Any way you slice it, the economy is sluggish. But last week the Commerce Department began highlighting the gross domestic product instead of the more familiar gross national product as its preferred gauge of the economy's health. Both measure the total output of goods and services. But the GNP, in use since 1941, covers production by a country's workers wherever they are in the world. The GDP, which the rest of the industrialized world uses, covers only the production within a nation's borders. Unfortunately, this statistical lens doesn't improve the current picture. The new figures show the economy grew 1.7% in the most recent quarter, down from a previously reported 2.4%, measured by GNP.

Most economists support the change, although it's not easy to keep them from yawning. "In many ways, it's much ado about nothing," says David Blitzer, chief economist at Standard & Poor's. "But it's raised consciousness in terms of imports and exports and how we measure and think about them. We should probably do it every other year."