The Ministry of Commerce reported on Thursday that US economic growth was a bit slower than expected in the last three months of 2024.
The gross domestic production is a scale of all products and services produced throughout the vast US economy during the period, indicating that the economy accelerated at a 2.3 % annual pace in the fourth quarter. The Economist, which Dow Jones surveyed, was hoping to increase by 2.5 % after 3.1 % in the third quarter.
This report is rational and solid, but ends 2024 with a slightly downbeat memo. During the year, GDP accelerated 2.8 % compared to 2.9 % in 2023. Thursday release was the first of the three estimates provided by the Economic Analysis Bureau.
Growth continued to the back of consumers who continued to spend the lively, despite the continuous burden of all prices, from home to supermarket eggs. Inflation is boiling from the height of the first time in mid -2022, but the household is particularly burdened, especially at the lower end of the income scale.
Consumer spending rose at a robust 4.2 % pace, reaching about two -thirds of all activities as usual. The government’s expenditure also provided a boost to accelerate at a level of 3.2 %.
Trade has caused the period growth, as the import is subtracted from 0.8 % off the GDP calculation. Exports have also decreased by 0.8 %. The total domestic investment has fallen by 5.6 %, shaving beyond the top line number. The easing of inventory has reduced almost 1 % points.
The Ministry of Labor reported that the first unemployment request for the week ended on January 25 was 207,000, a rapid decrease of 16,000 from the previous fiscal year, far below 228,000 forecasts. Continuous claims running one week later decreased from 402 million to 1.86 million.
With the U.S. economy’s resilience and the relative deceleration of inflation, the federal preparation system has undergone patients on monetary policy. The Fed has reduced its major interest rates in the last four months of 2024, but has indicated that the authorities are unlikely to be aggressive this year.
At the recently concluded Fed meeting, the Central Bank did not indicate that it was expecting a reduction immediately.
Fed authorities have expressed some concerns about whether the floating movements are stagnant. Thursday reports, the so -called chain -weighted price index measure consumers who replace cheaper products with more expensive products, measure their accounts, and faster than 1.9 % of the third quarter, 2.3. It shows that it has increased faster than it is below. % estimate.
However, the data also indicated that consumers were immersed in savings to supply their purchases. The individual’s savings rate was 4.1 %, decreasing by 0.2 percent points from the previous quarter at the lowest level in two years.
