Better Business, 5/e

Objective 2-4 Economic Indicators

1. Explain how the various economic indicators—particularly the gross domestic product (GDP), price indices, the unemployment rate, and productivity—reflect the health of an economy.

Greg Johnson needs to decide how much inventory to purchase for his large automobile dealership. A few years ago, the recession resulted in fewer new car purchases but improved the sales of used cars on his lot. His company’s service department also did better because customers were choosing to fix their cars rather than trade them in. As a result, Greg found he needed to stock more auto parts.

Now, however, Greg is beginning ...