The U.S. economy grew by 2.8% in the third quarter per the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which was a solid but somewhatdisappointing Gross Domestic Product reading given that forecasts expected higher growth. By comparison, we saw 3% and1.6% growth in the second and first quarters of this year.
What’s the bottom line?
Economic activity in the third quarter was driven by consumer spending, exports and federal government spending. Note that this report was an advanced estimate and the data is subject to revisions when the second and final readings are released on November 27 and December 20, respectively.