A report from
the Commerce Department revealed on Wednesday that the U.S. economy grew slightly less than
initially estimated in the fourth quarter of 2023, as a downward revision to
private inventory investment that was partly offset by upward revisions to
state and local government spending and consumer spending.
According to
the second estimate, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an
annual rate of 3.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2023, compared to a 3.3 per cent q-o-q
growth reported in the advance estimate.
Economists had expected
the growth rate to stay unrevised at 3.3 per cent.
In the previous
quarter, the economy advanced by 4.9 per cent q-o-q.
The fourth-quarter
increase in real GDP was due to gains in consumer spending, exports, state and
local government spending, nonresidential fixed investment, federal government
spending, and residential fixed investment. These increases, however, were partly
offset by a fall in private inventory investment. Meanwhile, imports, which are
a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, grew.