Real gross domestic product—the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S.—increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to preliminary estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent.
The GDP estimates released today are based on more complete source data than were available for the advance estimates issued last month. In the advance estimates, the increase in real GDP was 3. 5 percent.
The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, state and local government spending, and federal government that were partly offset by negative contributions from private inventory investment and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
The small acceleration in real GDP growth in the fourth quarter primarily reflected a downturn in imports and acceleration in PCE, in exports, and in federal government spending that were partly offset by downturns in private inventory investment, in equipment and software, and in nonresidential structures.
to Daily News