The Commerce
Department issued on Thursday its advance estimate for the U.S. gross domestic
product (GDP) for the first quarter of 2024, which showed that the U.S. economy expanded much less than anticipated
in the reviewed period.
According to
the estimate, the U.S. real GDP grew at an annual rate of 1.6 per cent q-o-q in
the first quarter of 2024, following an unrevised 3.4 per cent q-o-q expansion
in the previous quarter. This marked the weakest economic growth since a contraction
in the second quarter of 2022 (-0.6 per cent q-o-q).
Economists had expected
the U.S. GDP to increase 2.5 per cent q-o-q.
According to
the report, the advance in real GDP in the first quarter was primarily due to
increases in consumer spending, residential fixed investment, non-residential
fixed investment, and state and local government spending that were partly
offset by a decrease in private inventory investment. Meanwhile, imports, which
are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, rose.