By MacKenzie C. Babb
IIP Staff Writer
Washington, August 29, 2012
The U.S. economy grew more than initially estimated from April to June as gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 1.7 percent, according to a new Commerce Department report.
The August 29 report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows a 0.2 percent, or $6.5 billion, increase in U.S. economic growth during the period — higher than originally reported in the department’s advance quarterly estimate, released July 27.
The new figure uses more complete source data to calculate the GDP, or total output of goods and services produced by the country.
The report confirms that the U.S. economy posted its 12th straight quarter of positive growth, which acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank has said largely coincides with 28 straight months of private sector employment gains that have totaled 4.4 million new jobs.
In a statement following the advance estimate’s release last month, Blank said the second-quarter growth “shows that our economy continues to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.”
The second-quarter growth in GDP primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, exports, nonresidential fixed investment and residential fixed investment. These gains were partly offset by negative contributions from private inventory investment and from state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.
Growth from April to June came in slightly lower than growth during the first three months of the year, which totaled 2 percent. This deceleration in growth from the first to second quarter primarily reflected decelerations in personal consumption expenditures, nonresidential fixed investment and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a smaller decrease in federal government spending, an acceleration in exports and a smaller decrease in private inventory investment.
Exports of goods and services increased 6 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 4.4 percent in the first. The report said imports of goods and services increased 2.9 percent during the same period, compared with an increase of 3.1 from January to March.
The next revision of quarterly growth statistics is scheduled to be released September 27.