Fourth quarter economic growth revised up to 2.9 percent

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew at a solid 2.9 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, a sharp upward revision that caps three quarters of the fastest growth in more than a decade. The Trump administration is hoping the economy will accelerate further this year, aided by sizable tax cuts and increased government spending.

The gross domestic product, the country’s total output of goods and services, grew at a faster clip than its previous estimate of 2.5 percent, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

That 2.9 percent fourth quarter advance followed gains of 3.1 percent in the second quarter and 3.2 percent in the third quarter. It’s the strongest nine-month stretch of growth in a dozen years, since the economy expanded at rates of 3.7 percent, 3.5 percent and 4.3 percent from the third quarter of 2004 through the first quarter of 2005

Wednesday’s revision, the government’s third and final look at GDP in the quarter, was better than analysts had been expecting.

“The economy’s wheels were spinning faster than we thought in the fourth quarter,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York. “There is nothing in today’s report that holds the economy back from its historical run to beat the 10-year expansion of the Clinton years in the 1990s.”

The current expansion is already the third longest on record and will become the second longest, surpassing the expansion of the 1960s next month. If it lasts through June 2019, it will become the new record-holder, surpassing the 10-year expansion from March 1991 to March 2001.

The updated growth figure reflected in part more spending by consumers in services including auto repairs. Overall consumer spending grew at the fastest pace in three years. The revision also reflected less of a slowdown in inventory rebuilding than previously thought, stronger business spending on new structures and more spending by state and local governments.

For the year, the GDP expanded 2.3 percent, a solid rebound from a 1.5 percent GDP increase in 2016, which had been the weakest showing since the last recession ended in 2009.

President Donald Trump often points to the pickup in growth last year as evidence that his economic program of tax cuts, deregulation and stronger enforcement of trade deals is already having a positive impact.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to double growth, which has averaged a lackluster 2.2 percent annually since the recession ended.