Despite Percentage Drop, 3rd Quarter GDP Growth Beats Expectations

Nick Kangadis | October 30, 2019
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If you go by what the left is always saying, you’d think the U.S. was on the brink of collapse. Their constant anger, sadness and general despair is enough to make one take up drinking — heavily. But, if you go by what the American consumer is actually doing in the marketplace, you’ll find a different story being told.

Third quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers indicate that the U.S. economy has remained strong, even beating economists’ expectations. The economy grew 1.9 percent in the third quarter, which drew to a close at the end of September.

The 1.9 percent growth, however, is still a decline from the first and second quarters of 2019.

According to Fox Business:

The expansion in gross domestic product topped the annualized 1.6 percent that economists surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting, though it was still slower than earlier in the year. The U.S. economy grew at a 2 percent pace in the second quarter and by 3.1 percent at the start of 2019.

The waning momentum reflects the 15-month long trade war between the U.S. and China, which has weighed on consumer and business confidence.

Fox Business attributes part of the slowdown in the third quarter to “the six-week strike at General Motors” and “the ongoing troubles at Boeing that have caused a slowdown in output.”

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported:

The deceleration in real GDP in the third quarter reflected decelerations in PCE [Personal Consumption Expenditure], federal government spending, and state and local government spending, and a larger decrease in nonresidential fixed investment. These movements were partly offset by a smaller decrease in private inventory investment, and upturns in exports and in residential fixed investment.

It should be interesting to see what rate the economy grows, in terms of consumer spending, with the holiday season nearly upon us.

The numbers provided by the BEA are an “Advance Estimate,” with a second, “more compete” estimate coming in late November.

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