Jamaica's gross domestic product, for the first time, has topped the $1 trillion mark, under the revised model that statisticians now use to measure the size of the economy.

But that's at current market prices - formerly referred to as 'purchasers' value', under which GDP grew from $890 million to $1.048 trillion last year, according to the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica 2008 published by the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

At basic prices, however, the estimate was lower at $922.9 billion, up from $778 billion.

In real terms, that is, when adjusted for inflation using 2003 as the base year, GDP contracted by 0.6 per cent, from $508.8 billion to $505.8 billion.

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica, the premier agency that tracks economic data, rolled out the new model last year, under which current price GDP outcomes beyond 2003 were adjusted upwards by some $100 billion, on average, per annum.

The estimates before then were based on 1996 prices.

The revision also sliced about eight percentage points off the 'goods producing' sector's contribution to real GDP - from 35 per cent to between 26 per cent and 27 per cent.

Instead of a 12-13 per cent contribution, manufacturing was adjusted down to about 8.5 per cent, while construction GDP was also in the 8.5 per cent range, down from approximately 10 per cent.

business@gleanerjm.com