A report from
the Commerce Department showed on Thursday that the U.S. economy grew more than previously
estimated in the fourth quarter of 2023, due mainly to upward revisions to
consumer spending and non-residential fixed investment, which were partly
offset by a downward revision to private inventory investment.
According to
the third estimate, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an annual
rate of 3.4 per cent in the final quarter of 2023, being above the 3.2 per cent increase reported in
the second estimate.
Economists had expected
the growth rate to remain unrevised at 3.2 per cent per cent q-o-q.
In the previous
quarter, the economy grew by 4.9 per cent q-o-q.
The fourth-quarter
advance in real GDP primarily reflected gains in consumer spending, state and
local government spending, exports, nonresidential fixed investment, federal
government spending, and residential fixed investment, which were partly offset
by a decrease in private inventory investment. Meanwhile, imports, which are a
subtraction in the calculation of GDP, went up.