Fourth-Quarter GDP Rate Revised Down to 2.4%
The U.S. economy increased at a revised 2.4% annual rate in the fourth quarter, down from an originally reported 3.2% gross domestic product figure, the Commerce Department reported.
The reading was lower than economists’ median forecast of a 2.4% increase, Bloomberg News reported. GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced.
The lower reading, due in part to smaller gains in consumer spending and inventories, followed a third-quarter 4.1% GDP growth rate.
Further progress in the labor market and less fiscal restraint this year probably will increase GDP after harsh weather slowed growth, Bloomberg reported.
“This year will look substantially better than last year,” Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group Inc., told Bloomberg. “We will have some weakness in the first quarter because of the weather, but we’ll make that up over the next few months.”
GDP expanded 1.9% for all of 2013 after a 2.8% rise the previous year.
Consumer spending, which makes up about 70% of the economy, rose at a 2.6% rate, lower than the originally reported 3.3% reading issued last month.
Government spending declined at a 5.6% pace from the prior three months, subtracting about 1 percentage point from overall growth.
