The alphabet soup of GDP, GNP, GVA and NNP — what each one actually measures.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country's borders in a period. Gross National Product (GNP) extends this to include net income earned by residents from abroad (GNP = GDP + Net Factor Income from Abroad). Net National Product (NNP) subtracts depreciation (consumption of fixed capital) from GNP, representing the actual, sustainable value added.
Gross Value Added (GVA) measures output from the production side — value added by each sector (agriculture, industry, services) at basic prices, before adding taxes and subtracting subsidies. India shifted its national accounts base year and methodology in 2015 to report GDP via GVA plus net taxes, aligning more closely with international (UN System of National Accounts) practice.
GFCF measures net additions to an economy's fixed assets (machinery, buildings, infrastructure) plus certain additions to the value of non-produced assets — essentially, a proxy for investment activity, and a key indicator economists watch for signs of future growth capacity.
Nominal GDP is measured at current prices; Real GDP adjusts for inflation using a base year, so it reflects actual volume growth rather than price-driven growth. Dividing any of these aggregates by population gives per-capita figures, useful for cross-country living-standard comparisons (though they say nothing about distribution/inequality).
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