IEA Pocket Charts Panel A-4 (left)

General notes

This is one of 20 regular and a dozen periodic chart panels taken as a sample from the final issue -- December 1979 -- of the initial series of IEA Pocket Charts. The compact and analytically advanced economic charts feature the following analytical features:

1. "Flat horizontal" presentation, as growth rates or ratios to GDP -- to facilitate comparisons of different time periods and series
2. Fluctuations shaded to "normal" lines -- made possible by such presentation
3. Smoothing -- quarterly centered moving averages to eliminate "zig-zag noise"
4. Economic conditions displayed for context as vertical bands or lines (see Economic Fluctuations Viewed in Growth Perspective for definitions of these terms), clearly illustrated in chart Panel 1:
   • recessions by light shading
   • periods of stagnation by stippling
   • absolute "contractions" (as defined by NBER. the National Bureau of Economic Research) by dashed lines

A full guide to the presentation and analytical features of the charts -- an understanding of which is necessary for making full analytical use of the charts -- is available at How to Read IEA Charts.