Tag Archives: Bureau of Economic Analysis

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released Thursday its second look at gross domestic product(GDP) for Q1, estimating an annualized 1.0 percent decline as private inventory investment dropped further than originally reported. BEA’s first estimate, released late April, put growth at an estimated annual rate of 0.1 percent compared to Q4’s final rate of 2.6 percent.

According to numbers put out by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Wednesday, real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annualized rate of 0.1 percent in Q1, a plunge from the final 2.6 percent growth rate reported for Q4 2013. The sudden slowdown reflects in part the toll this year’s winter season took on economic expansion, though not all changes were weather-related.

In its “advance” estimate of real gross domestic product (GDP) last quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) put growth at an estimated annual rate of 3.2 percent. For all of 2013, the bureau estimates real GDP increased 1.9 percent compared to a gain of 2.8 percent in 2012.

The nation’s economy grew 2.5 percent in the second quarter, slower than economists forecast, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday. Economists had expected the report the third in the series of monthly GDP reports by the BEA to show the economy had grown at a 2.

At the end of the classic ""Miracle on 34th Street,"" Fred Gailey—fresh from proving department store Santa Kris Kringle is the Santa Claus—muses aloud, ""Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing after all"" when (spoiler alert) he spots Kringle's cane in a vacant, for-sale house his soon-to-be stepdaughter Susie has dreamed of. Perhaps critics of sequester may not have been doing such a ""wonderful thing"" when they argued that across-the-board cuts would have a crippling effect on the nation's economy because of the importance of government spending's ripple effect. Those critics, of course, had statistics on their side.

Consumers kept their cash--and credit cards--in their wallets in July as personal spending rose just 0.1 percent, while income increased 0.2 percent, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. Economists had expected income to grow 0.2 percent but thought spending would increase 0.3 percent.

Personal spending in June grew 0.5 percent, its fastest pace February while personal income rose 0.3 percent ,the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. Economists had expected income and spending each to grow 0.4 percent. By the numbers, income grew $45.4 billion, while spending was up $59.4 billion, the largest month-over-month increase since February when spending rose $75.7 billion.

The nation’s economy grew at a 1.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Wednesday. Growth exceeded economist forecasts but remained slower than the growth rate needed to add jobs. In the first quarter, GDP grew 1.1 percent and in the second quarter last year, the economy grew at a 1.2 percent annualized rate.

Adding new pressures for the Federal Reserve, the nation's economy added 195,000 jobs in June, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 7.6.percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. While the unemployment rate was unchanged, the broader employment-population ratio improved to 58.7 percent. The Fed has been looking to improvements in the labor market for a sign it should begin to reduce its program of stimulative monetary policy.

The reaction to Thursday's report on personal income and spending for May was generally positive. Personal income rose 0.5 percent from April--five times what was expected--and personal consumption expenditures (or PCE) were up 0.3 percent, matching economist forecasts.