WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth accelerated in the second quarter amid strength in consumer spending, the government confirmed on Thursday.
Gross domestic product increased at an unrevised 3.0% annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its third estimate of second-quarter GDP on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP would be unrevised at a 3.0% pace.
Growth in the first quarter was revised up to a 1.6% rate from the previously reported 1.4% pace.
The government revised the national accounts data from the first quarter of 2019 through the first quarter of 2024. The revisions showed economic growth and corporate profits were stronger in 2023 than previously estimated.
The revision narrowed the gap between GDP and gross domestic income (GDI), an alternative measure of economic growth. Some economists have argued the gap suggested that GDP was overstating the economy’s health.
GDI, which measures economic activity from the income side, increased at a 3.4% rate last quarter, revised up from the initially estimated 1.3% pace. It rose at an upwardly revised 3.0% pace in the January-March quarter. GDI was previously reported to have increased at a 1.3% rate in the first quarter.
In principle, GDP and GDI should be equal, but in practice they differ as they are estimated using different and largely independent source data.
The average of GDP and GDI, also referred to as gross domestic output and considered a better measure of economic activity, increased at a 3.2% rate last quarter. That was revised up from the previously estimated 2.1% pace. Gross domestic output advanced at a 2.3% pace in the first quarter, revised up/down from the previously reported 1.4% pace.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao)
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