FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 28, 2011
CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
202-482-4883

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis today released the advance estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2010. Real GDP grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, up from a third quarter growth rate of 2.6 percent. Real GDP increased 2.9 percent for the full year of 2010 over 2009. This follows a decline of 2.6 percent in 2009, reflecting the largest change in year-to-year growth since 1983.

“With more than a million jobs created by the private sector over the last year, there is no doubt that America's economy is stronger today than it was two years ago when President Obama took office; today's GDP number is yet another strong indication of that,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “Growth in consumer spending and exports during the fourth quarter has led to increasing optimism about our economy. As the President emphasized in his State of the Union address, winning the future depends on our ability to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build our global competition and restructure our economic foundation so that it is competitive, growing, and working for all Americans.”