Gross Domestic Product by Industry

Sources and Methods with Industry Details

By Erika Young, Industry Accounts Division, Statistics Canada

This document describes all aspects of output-based Gross Domestic Product (GDP), also known as GDP by industry or simply monthly GDP. It contains a comprehensive record of specific methodologies and data sources, on an industry by industry basis.

It is meant to complement a previous Statistics Canada publication, released in November 2002, entitled Gross Domestic Product by Industry, Sources and Methods (Catalogue no. 15-547), which discusses in general terms the concepts, definitions, classifications and statistical methods underlying the monthly GDP measures.

In the current publication, the documentation of each industry is organized into the following categories:

• Under the heading 'Industry definition' is the description of the principal activity (or output) of establishments which are classified to a particular industry.

• 'Output, supply and demand' is an overview of the industry's productive activity, highlighting which goods and services constitute most of the industry's output and who are the most important purchasers of those products.

• 'Monthly projector' describes the indicator that is used for deriving estimates of monthly GDP.

• 'Data' provides a list of data entering the monthly projector system, including data sources.

• Finally, the section called 'Deflation' deals with the method of expressing monthly GDP at constant prices.