US GDP growth revised up to 2.9%
THAT IS A SLIGHT MODERATION FROM THIRD QUARTER’S 3.2%
US economic growth slowed less than previously estimated in the fourth quarter as the biggest gain in consumer spending in three years partially offset the drag from a surge in imports.
Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.9 per cent annual rate in the final three months of 2017, instead of the previously reported 2.5 per cent, the Commerce Department said in its third GDP estimate for the period yesterday. That was a slight moderation from the third quarter’s brisk 3.2 per cent pace.
The upward revision to the fourth-quarter growth estimate also reflected less inventory reduction than previously reported.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected that fourthquarter GDP growth would be revised up to a 2.7 per cent rate. The economy grew 2.3 per cent in 2017, an acceleration from the 1.5 per cent logged in 2016.
The government also reported that after-tax corporate profits increased at a 1.7 per cent rate in the fourth quarter after rising at a 5.7 per cent pace in the third quarter.
The government said while provisions of the income tax overhaul that came into effect in January had no effect on corporate profits for current production, they had impacted on net cash flow in the fourth quarter.
An alternate measure of growth, gross domestic income, rose at a 0.9 per cent rate in the October-December period. GDI expanded at a 2.4 per cent rate in the third quarter.
The average of GDP and GDI, also referred to as gross domestic output and considered a better measure of economic activity, increased at a 1.9 per cent rate in the fourth quarter.
That followed a 2.8 per cent rate of increase in the prior period.