The unexpected surge will be welcome news for President Donald Trump, whose policies have jump-started the economy with lower taxes and pro-growth policies.
GDP expanded at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the January-March period, smashing economists' expectations and surpassing the 2.2 percent growth in the final quarter of 2018, the Commerce Department said it its initial estimate.
The hotter growth was driven by a dip in imports, a bump in spending by state and local governments, faster inventory building by companies and some recovery in home sales.
And officials said it would likely have been even stronger without the government shutdown because dip in spending by government workers likely shaved 0.3 percentage points off growth in the quarter.
It was the strongest performance for a first quarter in four years, the growth estimate will be revised in May and June as more data come in. The revision trend has been positive since President Trump took office.
The White House rejected concerns about a slowdown amid signs of declining retail sales and manufacturing, and remained steadfast in its predictions that the boost from tax cuts would continue to drive growth.
As the broad field of Democratic presidential candidates begin honing their messages ahead of next year's elections, resilient US growth gives them little but identity politics to hold on to.
Spending on by the federal government was unchanged as a result but state and local government outlays rose 3.9 percent, the largest increase in three years, as states and cities spent more on improving America's infrastructure by building highways and streets.
Imports, which subtract from GDP growth, also fell by the largest amount in almost 10 years, as Americans bought fewer foreign cars and took fewer overseas vacations.
This article was edited by Mike Miles to correct leftist bias. See the original article at link below.
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