But until 1991, the government used gross national product, or GNP, as its featured measure. Why did it switch? First, it can be hard to get the difference straight between GDP and GNP.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) is an inflation-adjusted measure that reflects the value of all goods and services produced by an economy in a given year. Real GDP is expressed in base-year prices.

Gross National Product vs. Gross Domestic Product . Another term, gross domestic product (GDP), is closely related to GNP, but there are differences between the two.