Business
U.S. enjoys Q1 GDP growth of 3.2%
U.S. enjoys Q1 GDP growth of 3.2%
About this update from Thomson Reuters Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"\nU.S. enjoys Q1 GDP growth of 3.2%\n\n\n Apr. 30, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) -- The U.S. economy grew 3.2% in the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department reported Friday, another indication a steady, though modest, recovery has taken hold.\nThe annualized rate of growth of the gross domestic product -- the nation's total production of goods and services -- was down from the 5.6% rate of the last three months of 2009. But that had been expected as the effect of the federal government's stimulus policies peaked during that period.\nThe median forecast for first quarter GDP was 3.4%, according to a survey of economists by Thomson Reuters, and Friday's figure fell below that. But that projection reflected more bullish sentiment about the economy in recent weeks. The National Assn. of Business Economics had forecast in February that first-quarter GDP would be 3%.\nThe GDP growth rate released Friday by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis is only modest, but still is a dramatic improvement over the same period last year. At the bottom of the recession, the U.S. economy shrank 6.4% in the first quarter of 2009.\nThat was the low point for the deepest recession since the 1930s, which began in December 2007. Economic growth returned last summer when the third-quarter GDP increased at an annualized rate of 2.2%.\nThe Bureau of Economic Analysis said growth was boosted in the first quarter by consumer spending. Real personal consumption expenditures increased 3.6%, compared with a 1.6% increase in the last three months of 2009.\nDespite three straight quarters of economic growth, the recession still has not been declared officially over. The National Bureau of Economic Research, which determines the lengths of business cycles, said this month that it "would be premature" to set a date marking the end of the recession and the start of an economic expansion.\nA major reason for that decision was the still-high unemployment rate.\nAlthough job growth returned in March, with the economy creating 162,000 jobs, the national unemployment rate remained at 9.7%. The figure is higher in many states, including California, which reached a new high of 12.6% in March, tied for third-worst in the nation. The state trailed only Michigan's 14.1% jobless rate and Nevada's 13.4% figure, and was tied with Rhode Island.\n\n\n\n...