Economy Remains Strong -- 1st Quarter GDP Growth At 4.8%
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its “advance estimate” of growth in the inflation-adjusted (“real”) gross domestic product (GDP) for the 1st quarter of 2006. (Available at http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrelarchive/2006/gdp106a.pdf).
Annualized GDP growth in the 1st quarter was estimated at a rapid 4.8% rate; growth was 1.7% in the 4th quarter of last year.
Highlights:
The major contributors to GDP growth in the 1st quarter were personal consumption expenditures (which grew 5.5%), business equipment and software spending (which grew 16.4%), exports (which grew 12.1%), and federal government spending (which grew 10.8%). Imports, which are a subtraction from GDP, grew 13.0%.
The inflation-adjusted change in private inventories subtracted 0.52 percentage point from the 1st-quarter change in real GDP.
The acceleration in growth (from 1.7% in the 4th quarter to 4.8% in the 1st) reflected faster growth in personal consumption expenditures for durable goods, an upturn in federal government spending, and faster growth in equipment and software and in exports.
Growth in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy prices, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of consumer price inflation, declined to an annualized 2.0% in the 1st quarter from 2.4% in the 4th quarter.
Annualized GDP growth in the 1st quarter was estimated at a rapid 4.8% rate; growth was 1.7% in the 4th quarter of last year.
Highlights:
The major contributors to GDP growth in the 1st quarter were personal consumption expenditures (which grew 5.5%), business equipment and software spending (which grew 16.4%), exports (which grew 12.1%), and federal government spending (which grew 10.8%). Imports, which are a subtraction from GDP, grew 13.0%.
The inflation-adjusted change in private inventories subtracted 0.52 percentage point from the 1st-quarter change in real GDP.
The acceleration in growth (from 1.7% in the 4th quarter to 4.8% in the 1st) reflected faster growth in personal consumption expenditures for durable goods, an upturn in federal government spending, and faster growth in equipment and software and in exports.
Growth in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy prices, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of consumer price inflation, declined to an annualized 2.0% in the 1st quarter from 2.4% in the 4th quarter.
