BEA Briefing: Territorial economic accounts for American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Abstract

In collaboration with the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) and with staff from the territorial governments, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) produces annual economic accounts for American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The OIA provides funding for the work and facilitates interactions between BEA and the territorial governments. The purpose of this ongoing project is to provide data users with comprehensive, objective measures of economic activity for these four U.S. territories. Consistent measures of economic activity are critical for understanding the territorial economies and how they have developed over time. Without such measures, it is difficult for businesses and governments to make informed economic and financial planning decisions and for policymakers to assess the impacts of their decisions on growth. For the United States, BEA produces gross domestic product (GDP) and other related economic measures as part of its national income and product accounts (NIPAs); however, these estimates cover only the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Transactions with the territories are classified as transactions with the “rest-of-the-world.”