A report from
the Commerce Department showed on Thursday that the U.S. economy grew marginally more than
previously estimated in the final quarter of
2024, due primarily to a downward revision to imports.
According to
the third estimate, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an
annual rate of 2.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, slightly above
the 2.3 per cent advance reported
in the second estimate.
Economists had expected
the growth rate to be unrevised at 2.3 per cent q-o-q.
In the previous
quarter, the economy expanded by 3.1 per cent q-o-q.
The fourth-quarter
advance in real GDP primarily reflected gains in consumer spending and government spending that were
partly offset by a drop in investment. Meanwhile, imports, which are a subtraction in the
calculation of GDP, fell.