om - The US Department of Commerce said a short while ago, today, Thursday, that US economic growth was much greater than expected in the second quarter of this year.
Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced from April through June, rose 3% in the second quarter in the latest revised reading, according to the departmentâs Bureau of Economic Analysis. The previous reading had also shown a 3% increase in the second quarter.
The third estimate of second-quarter GDP confirms that economic growth was higher than the 1.4% annual growth seen in the first quarter.
The data release comes a week after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point in an effort to keep what Fed Chair Powell described as an economy in "good shape."
âThe economy is growing at a solid pace,â Powell said on September 18 after the rate cut decision. âInflation is falling and the labor market is still strong. So we want to keep that going, and thatâs what weâre doing by cutting interest rates.â
Thursdayâs GDP reading is a look back as it updates economic growth for the quarter that ended in June. But expectations show the economy growing at a steady pace in the third quarter, which also ends in September.
The Atlanta Fed's GDP Tracker currently expects the U.S. economy to grow at a 2.9% annual rate. Meanwhile, the Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) economics team currently expects the U.S. economy to grow at a 3% annual rate in the third quarter.
