Real GDP grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.5 percent during the third quarter of 2018, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s “advance” estimate, down from 4.2 percent in the second quarter. The growth in real GDP reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, inventories, nonresidential fixed investment, federal government spending, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from net exports and residential fixed investment.
Consumption accounted for 2.7 percent of the gain, up from 2.6 percent during the second quarter. After inventories subtracted 1.2 percent to GDP last quarter, they added 2.1 percent in the third quarter. Net exports subtracted 1.8 percent from growth.
Government spending added 0.6 percent to growth. Federal government and state and local government contributed approximately 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent to the GDP increase, respectively.
Read the BEA release.
