The U.S. economy likely extended its recent boom, albeit at a slower clip, in the first three months of the year, fueled by free-spending Americans who have continued to shell out despite inflation.
New gross domestic product data out this morning from the Bureau of Economic Analysis is expected to show the economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.7 percent in the first three months of the year, marking the seventh straight quarter of growth above 2 percent. That would be down from 3.4 percent annualized growth in the previous quarter, reflecting a gradual slowdown after a post-pandemic surge.
Gross domestic product, the sum of all of the goods and services produced in the country, is the broadest measure of the economy.
“Growth is slowing, but clearly the economy is still on a solid path,” said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide, which recently scrapped its recession forecast for the year. “We’ve had very strong job growth that’s fueling higher incomes, giving people the money to go out and spend. But that’s also kept inflation high, so honestly a little bit of cooling is good news.”
Four years since after the pandemic recession, the U.S. economy has bounced back far stronger than anticipated. Unemployment, at 3.8 percent, is in the longest stretch of near-record low jobless rates since 1970.
Wages are going up. And crucially, families, businesses and governments are continuing to spend freely, keeping money sloshing through the economy.
Read more here from the Washington Post.
