The U.S. Department of Commerce reported this morning that GDP rose at an annual rate of 2.4 percent, slightly lower than the original estimate of 2.5 percent. Inflation was tame at 1.1 percent. According to the report:
The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, residential fixed investment, nonresidential fixed investment, and exports that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.
Consumer spending rose 3.4 percent, but government spending fell 4.9 percent. Corporate profits decreased $43.8 billion in the first quarter of 2013, as opposed to an increase of $45.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012.
