The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced this morning that real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an estimated 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter of 2003, exceeding expectations; many economists had forecast growth of less than 2.0 percent. GDP was up broadly across the key components of aggregate demand: consumption, investment, and government spending, and down only in net exports. In the first quarter of 2003, GDP increased at a 1.4 percent rate.