US Econ High now - GDP up from quarter
Wiseman 6/27. Paul Wiseman Indiana University Bloomington Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Journalism and history “US economic growth for last quarter is revised up slightly to a 1.4% annual rate” https://apnews.com/article/economy-growth-inflation-gdp-consumers-federal-reserve-869a27c99459a1ad10d0db89718f725d Accessed 7/1/24 NHS BG
The American economy expanded at a 1.4% annual pace from January through March, the slowest quarterly growth since spring 2022, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade from its previous estimate. Consumer spending grew at just a 1.5% rate, down from an initial estimate of 2%, in a sign that high interest rates may be taking a toll on the economy. The Commerce Department had previously estimated that the gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — advanced at a 1.3% rate last quarter. The first quarter’s GDP growth marked a sharp pullback from a strong 3.4% pace during the final three months of 2023. Still, Thursday’s report showed that the January-March slowdown was caused mainly by two factors — a surge in imports and a drop in business inventories — that can bounce around from quarter to quarter and don’t necessarily reflect the underlying health of the economy. Imports shaved 0.82 percentage point off first-quarter growth. Lower inventories subtracted 0.42 percentage point. Picking up the slack was business investment, which the government said rose at a 4.4% annual pace last quarter, up from its previous estimate of 3.2%. Higher investment in factories and other nonresidential buildings and in software and other types of intellectual property helped boost the increase.