U.S. Economy Grew by 1.3% in Second Quarter
Driven by a narrower trade deficit than the previous quarter, the U.S. economy grew by a 1.3% annual rate between April and June, and was expected to grow threefold in the following quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday.
Gross domestic product is the total value of all goods and services produced in the United States, and is a measure of the overall health of the economy.
In its final report on the gross domestic product for the second quarter, Commerce revised its growth figure upward slightly from 1.1%, but it was still far lower than the 5% rate of growth in the first three months of 2002.
The revision was slightly above most observers’ consensus estimate of 1.1%, Bloomberg reported. A survey by the news wire suggests that third-quarter growth would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.5% and fourth-quarter growth was likely to grow by 2.5%.
The modest gain in GDP is being driven, economists say, by consumer spending – fueled by home and car sales, Bloomberg said. The combination of low mortgage rates for homebuyers and zero-interest car loans has helped boost sales of these big-ticket items.
