U.S. Economy Grew at 6.1% Rate in 1Q

Outstripping earlier reports, the economy grew at a 6.1% rate in the first quarter of 2002, reflecting the first increase in business equipment spending in 1 1/2 years, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Trucking is extremely sensitive to economic conditions and signs of growth are good news for the industry.

The revised rate of increase in gross domestic product, compares with a 5.6% pace that was estimated last month. GDP is the total value of all goods and services produced in the U.S.

The growth rate was fastest since an 8.3% jump in the fourth quarter of 1999. Economists were expecting a 5.6% first-quarter growth rate, Bloomberg said, after the economy grew at a 1.7% clip in the fourth quarter of 2001.

Commerce said business investment in equipment and software rose at a 0.1% annual rate, the first increase since the third quarter of 2000. That compares with a previously reported 2.3% rate of decline. Government spending increased at a 6.6% percent annual rate, down 0.1% from what was previously reported.

Inventories fell by $27.7 billion at an annual rate, contributing 3.4% percentage points to growth, the most since 1987.

Real final sales, which exclude inventories, rose at a 2.6% rate, after rising at a 3.8% annual rate in the fourth quarter. This slowing of consumer demand is one reason the Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, Bloomberg said.

The rate of growth in each the remaining three quarters of the year is expected to be significantly lower than the first quarter, the Associated Press said.

Unadjusted for inflation, GDP totaled $10.45 trillion in the first quarter when measured at an annual rate, up from $10.26 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2001, Commerce said.

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