Blog
Fourth Quarter GDP Revised Down to 2.2 Percent
March 28, 2019
The U.S. economy slowed a bit more at the end of 2018 than previously thought. Gross domestic product rose 2.2 percent, down from earlier estimates of 2.6 percent. This is a sizable decline from Q3’s 3.4 percent growth. Economists had expected a revision down to 2.4 percent.
For all of 2018, the economy grew at 2.9 percent, just shy of the White House’s 3 percent target. Growth for the year was the strongest it had been since 2015, and an increase over 2017’s 2.2 percent growth.
There are concerns that this downward momentum may continue into the first quarter of the new year, which has seen modest increases in retail spending, and sluggishness in homebuilding and manufacturing.
