Bureau of Economic Analysis BEA

During the Depression, policymakers had no reliable measure of how far the economy had fallen. In January 1934 the Commerce Department delivered to the Senate the first official estimates of national income, prepared under economist Simon Kuznets, and wartime planning soon added the concept of gross national product. The office that produced them was renamed the Bureau of Economic Analysis in 1972. It is one of the principal federal statistical agencies and reports to the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs.

BEA produces the national income and product accounts, including quarterly gross domestic product, the most closely watched measure of the economy's size and growth. It also publishes personal income and spending, including the personal consumption expenditures price index that the Federal Reserve uses as its preferred inflation gauge, the U.S. trade balance with the Census Bureau, international investment flows, and GDP and income for every state and county. Its advance GDP estimate is revised as more data arrive.

Markets, the Federal Reserve, and Congress depend on BEA figures being released on schedule and free of political influence. The fall 2025 government shutdown delayed several releases, and the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner in August 2025 heightened concern among economists about pressure on all federal statistical agencies. Administration officials said they wanted more accurate and timely data, while former agency heads of both parties urged protections for statistical independence.