Q3 GDP Revised to 3.2%

This morning, the government revised the economic growth numbers for the third quarter. The U.S. economy grew by 3.2% during the third three months of the year. That’s an increase of 0.3% over the initial report from last month.

The latest data showed stronger consumer spending over the summer compared with the government’s initial estimate, but business investment was weaker than earlier thought.

Tuesday’s report also showed that a key measure of U.S. corporate profits increased for the third consecutive quarter. Profits after tax, without inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments, rose 3.5% from the second quarter to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.694 trillion in the third quarter.

While this is good news, it’s also a bit of old news. After all, the third quarter began five months ago and ended two months ago. Still, I’m willing to take all the good news we have. The third quarter was the best quarter for the economy in the last two years. Unfortunately, that really says more about how poor the other seven quarters were.

fredgraph11282016

Posted by on November 29th, 2016 at 10:29 am


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