U.S. Economy Continues Recovery with 13 Quarters of GDP Growth

29 November 2012

Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank has said the continued U.S. economic growth largely coincides with more than two years of employment gains.

The U.S. economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.7 percent from July to September, according to a new report from the Commerce Department.

The latest figures from the department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis revised third-quarter growth up 0.7 percent from the 2.0 percent found in its advance estimate issued in October. The November 29 release, based on more complete source data than was available for the previous estimate, showed gross domestic product (GDP) up significantly from 1.3 percent growth in the second quarter.

The report, which calculates both monthly and quarterly the output of goods and services produced by the United States, attributed third-quarter gains to several sectors.

“The increase in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, private inventory investment, federal government spending, residential fixed investment and exports,” the report said.

It added that this growth was partly offset by negative contributions from nonresidential fixed investment and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased slightly.

The report said the acceleration in GDP growth in the third quarter largely reflected upturns in private inventory investment and in federal government spending, a deceleration in imports, an acceleration in residential fixed investment and a smaller decrease in state and local government spending. It showed this acceleration was partly offset by a downturn in nonresidential fixed investment and deceleration in exports and personal consumption expenditures.

The third quarter was the 13th consecutive quarter of economic growth.

U.S. economic activity significantly affects the economies of other nations. The U.S. GDP stood at $15 trillion in 2011. Measured by purchasing power parity exchange rates (equalizing what people can buy with different currencies), that came to about 1.3 times the size of the second largest economy, that of China (whose population is more than four times that of the United States) and more than three times the GDP of third-ranked Japan. With just 4.5 percent of the world’s population, the United States was responsible for 19 percent of total economic output.

The Commerce Department will release its next revision of third-quarter growth December 20.