US economic growth slows in second quarter as trade disputes take toll from freemexy's blog
US economic growth slowed in the second quarter of 2019 as trade disputes and a global slowdown took their toll, the commerce department announced on Friday.To get more news about us gdp growth, you can visit shine news official website.
Revised figures from previous quarters showed the US narrowly missed Donald Trump’s pledge to grow the economy by over 3% last year. The commerce department pegged growth at 2.9% in 2018.
The latest decline was less than expected – thanks to a consumer spending spree – and the report showed signs that there is continuing momentum in the US’s decade-long economic expansion, albeit at a slowing pace.
US gross domestic product (GDP) – the broadest measure of the economy’s health – grew an an annual rate of 2.1% in the second quarter, the three-month period between April and June.
The figure is a marked slowdown in the 3.1% growth that the US achieved in the first three months of the year and comes as other major economies have warned that their growth is slowing too.
But economists had been expecting economic activity to have slowed to below 2% over the last quarter as the US’s ongoing trade disputes with its largest trading partners took their toll and businesses cut back on investments.
Businesses investment declined in the second quarter for the first time since early 2016, according to the report, dropping to a sluggish 0.6% from 4.4% in the first quarter.Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, rose sharply at annualized rate of 4.3% in the second quarter, up from 1.1% in the first quarter.
The GDP data will be one of the last major pieces of economic news that the Federal Reserve will receive before it meets next week. Fed officials have widely signaled that they are intending to cut rates by a quarter percentage point from its current range between 2.25% and 2.5%. It will be the first such cut in over a decade.
Trump has been pressing for a rate cut, an unprecedented move by a sitting president that challenges the Fed’s independence. On Friday he once again attacked the central bank calling it “anchor wrapped around our neck,” on Twitter.
Revised figures from previous quarters showed the US narrowly missed Donald Trump’s pledge to grow the economy by over 3% last year. The commerce department pegged growth at 2.9% in 2018.
The latest decline was less than expected – thanks to a consumer spending spree – and the report showed signs that there is continuing momentum in the US’s decade-long economic expansion, albeit at a slowing pace.
US gross domestic product (GDP) – the broadest measure of the economy’s health – grew an an annual rate of 2.1% in the second quarter, the three-month period between April and June.
The figure is a marked slowdown in the 3.1% growth that the US achieved in the first three months of the year and comes as other major economies have warned that their growth is slowing too.
But economists had been expecting economic activity to have slowed to below 2% over the last quarter as the US’s ongoing trade disputes with its largest trading partners took their toll and businesses cut back on investments.
Businesses investment declined in the second quarter for the first time since early 2016, according to the report, dropping to a sluggish 0.6% from 4.4% in the first quarter.Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, rose sharply at annualized rate of 4.3% in the second quarter, up from 1.1% in the first quarter.
The GDP data will be one of the last major pieces of economic news that the Federal Reserve will receive before it meets next week. Fed officials have widely signaled that they are intending to cut rates by a quarter percentage point from its current range between 2.25% and 2.5%. It will be the first such cut in over a decade.
Trump has been pressing for a rate cut, an unprecedented move by a sitting president that challenges the Fed’s independence. On Friday he once again attacked the central bank calling it “anchor wrapped around our neck,” on Twitter.
The Wall