Fourth-Quarter GDP Revised Upward to 5.9%

The U.S. economy expanded at a 5.9% annual rate in the fourth quarter, higher than originally reported, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Commerce last month had said the annual rate for the gross domestic product was 5.7%, the fastest since the third quarter of 2003. Friday’s was the second of three figures for GDP.

The gain topped economists’ projections of a 5.7% increase, Bloomberg reported.

For all of 2009, GDP dropped 2.4%, which was the worst yearly rate since 1946.

Consumer spending, which comprises about 70% of the economy, rose 1.7%, compared with the 2% reported last month. Economists had forecast a 2%.

Spending had grown to a 2.8% rate in the third quarter, boosted by the government’s “cash for clunkers” program.