Business Journal of CNY
The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) today revised upward its first-quarter estimate of the nation’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 1.2 percent, from the 0.7 percent it reported on April 28.
Economists had expected a smaller revision up to 0.9 percent.
The first-quarter GDP growth was still below the 2.1 percent growth generated in the fourth quarter of last year and 1.6 percent growth for all of 2016.
The government said the upward revision to GDP was led by larger increases in non-residential fixed business investment and consumer spending in the first quarter than previously estimated. Also, the decrease in state and local government spending in the quarter was smaller than the government previously estimated, according to the BEA data.
The BEA defines real GDP as the value of the goods and services produced by the nation’s economy, minus the value of the goods and services used up in production, adjusted for price.
Today’s revised GDP estimate is subject to yet another revision by the BEA, as more updated information is incorporated. The bureau said it will issue a third estimate for first-quarter GDP on June 29.
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