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Most activity of a country is consumed internally. Nominal GDP is (short-term at least) dominated by currency fluctuations.

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If you plot the US' nominal GDP over time in terms of USD, it looks pretty smooth, while other countries bounce around a lot more.[0] That's because other countries' USD nominal GDPs are affected by exchange-rate fluctuations.

If you plot in terms of PPP GDP, other counties suddenly appear much smoother.[1]

0. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?location...

1. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.PP.CD?locat...

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