Gross domestic product (GDP)

Gross domestic product is the final result of the production activity of resident producer units over a period — here, a quarter. INS estimates it by two methods which must give the same result: the production approach (gross value added, plus taxes on products, minus subsidies on products) and the expenditure approach (actual final consumption, plus gross capital formation, plus exports, minus imports).

The figure at the top is in current prices: it includes the rise in prices too. The real growth, in the next panel, takes that out — which is why the two can move in opposite directions. In the second quarter of 2026, nominal GDP was 10.8% higher than a year earlier, while the economy had shrunk by 2.0% in real terms.

The data are estimated from infra-annual surveys on industrial, construction, services and trade output, from the agricultural production account, from the balance sheets of financial institutions and from administrative sources — the execution of the state budget, of the local budgets and of the social insurance budget, plus the balance of payments. They are estimates, not a count.

The series is revised along its whole length, not only at its tail: INS recomputes the quarterly accounts whenever a new version of the annual accounts appears, and revising the unadjusted series drags the seasonally adjusted ones with it. Figures marked “provisional” or “semi-final” will change.

The four quarters add up to annual GDP, but only for the level. The average of the four quarterly growth rates is NOT the year's economic growth: they are two different quantities, and in a volatile year they differ visibly.