Govt provides details and updates on GDP figures for 2019 and 2020

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — When the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released last week Thursday the gross domestic product (GDP) for American Samoa in 2021, it also provided data on the GDP by industry and compensation for 2020 as well as revised updates for 2019 and 2020.

According to BEA, for the year 2020, GDP increased 5%. “The newly available GDP by industry data, which are released on a 1-year lag, reveal that both the government and private sector contributed to growth in real GDP in 2020,” the federal agency said.

For the government sector, it increased 9.1% primarily reflecting growth in compensation for territorial government employees. In the private sector, it increased 3.1%, primarily reflecting growth in manufacturing. “The growth in manufacturing reflected increased tuna cannery output,” BEA points out.

And total compensation increased from $309 million in 2019 to $345 million in 2020. “The $36 million increase primarily reflected growth in territorial government compensation,” it says.

BEA also provided updates to American Samoa GDP, saying that estimates for 2019 and 2020 that were released on November 30, 2021, have been revised to incorporate updates to source data, including the following:

• Value of imported goods by type from the American Samoa Department of Commerce,

• Audited financial statements for the American Samoa Government and its independent agencies, and

• Wage and employment information from the U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns.

According to BEA, the revised estimates exhibit a pattern of inflation-adjusted GDP growth similar to the previously published estimates.

“Due to lags in the availability of data for various components of GDP, the statistics presented (last Thursday) for 2021 are preliminary estimates,” BEA points out.

For example, data covering government spending and imports of goods for the fourth quarter of 2021 were not available in time for incorporation into this year’s estimates of GDP. As additional source data become available, BEA will incorporate the information and will release updated estimates once a year.

BEA statistics released last Thursday state that American Samoa’s real GDP decreased by 1.7% in 2021 after increasing 5.0% in 2020. (See Samoa News edition Sept. 02 for details.)

“The decrease in real GDP reflected decreases in exports and private inventory investment,” BEA explained. “These decreases were partly offset by increases in personal consumption expenditures, government spending, and private fixed investment.”

Specific data and information at BEA online - (https://www.bea.gov/news/2022/gross-domestic-product-american-samoa-2021).