Second-Quarter GDP Grows 2.4%

The U.S. gross domestic product rose at a 2.4% annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The rate shows a slowing from the first-quarter revised rate of a 3.7% expansion, Bloomberg reported.

The rate was lower than economists’ forecasts of a 2.6% growth rate, Bloomberg said.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of the economy, rose 1.6%, compared with 1.9% in the first quarter, which was smaller than previously estimated.

The economy shrank 4.1% from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2009, Bloomberg said.

Friday’s figure was the first of three; Commerce will revise it two more times.