Average GDP Growth Less than Half of What Obama Predicted

The average GDP growth for the first three quarters of this year is 1.77 percent, according to data released by the the Bureau of Economic Analysis this morning. That is less than half of what the White House predicted GDP growth would be this year, and less than a third of what the Obama administration projected when it first took office.

Here's a chart from the Republican-side of the Senate Budget Committee, detailing real GDP growth numbers versus those predicted by the White House:

When Obama first came into office, in 2009, the White House projected that GDP growth this year (2012) would be 4.6 percent. Then, in 2010, the White House downplayed that projection to 4.3 percent. And last year, the forecast looked even gloomier, at 3.6 percent.

But as the numbers show, the three quarter average of this year came in even worse: 1.77 percent.

"Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S., rose at a 2 percent annual rate after climbing 1.3 percent in the prior quarter, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington," Bloomberg reports.

And while Bloomberg goes on to note "The median forecast of 86 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 1.8 percent gain," and that therefore this number beats expectations, it is worth keeping in mind that it's less than half of what the White House predicted growth would be.