In the first three months of 2024, the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) posted the smallest growth in seven quarters, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Thursday.
The 1.6 percent annualized increase from the previous quarter:
- Fell well short of analysts’ 2.5 percent expectations for economic growth.
- Was the lowest since the second quarter of 2022, when it shrank by 0.6 percent.
- Was less than half the 3.4 percent growth posted in the fourth quarter of 2023.
A 0.4 percent contraction in goods follows a 3.0 percent increase the previous quarter and primarily reflects decreases in motor vehicles and parts, as well as gasoline and other energy goods, the BEA reports. Meanwhile, services expanded 4.0 percent, improving on the previous quarter’s 3.4% rise.
Within goods, the decline primarily reflected decreases in motor vehicles and parts as well as gasoline and other energy goods. The 0.4 falloff in goods follows 3.0 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased 7.2 percent – the largest growth since the first quarter of 2021. The increase reflects growth of 6.7 percent in goods and 9.0 percent in services.
The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 3.1 percent in the first quarter, up from 1.9 percent growth in the fourth quarter. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased by 3.4 percent, nearly double the previous quarter’s 1.8 percent rise.
Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index increased 3.7 percent, compared with an increase of 2.0 percent in the fourth quarter.
Also in Thursday’s report, the BEA revealed that Americans saved less of their income in the first quarter:
“The personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 3.6 percent in the first quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the fourth quarter.”
The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.
