Second-Quarter GDP Tops Forecast

The U.S. economy grew at a 3.4% annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The upturn topped economists’ forecasts of a 3.2% increase, Bloomberg reported.

The gross domestic product rate followed a 0.6% reading in the first quarter. GDP for the fourth-quarter of 2006 grew at 2.5%.

The release was the first of several that Commerce will release. It will revise the second-quarter GDP in August and September.