Real GDP grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.4 percent during the third quarter of 2018, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s third estimate, revised down from the “second” estimate. Personal Consumption and Expenditures (PCE) and exports were revised down, and private inventory investment was revised up. The general picture of economic growth remained the same.
Real Gross Domestic Income (GDI) increased 4.3 percent in the third quarter, compared to the increase of 0.9 percent in the second. The average of real GDP and real GDI, a supplemental measure of US economic activity, increased 3.8 percent in the third quarter, compared with an increase of 2.5 percent in the second quarter.
The deceleration in real GDP growth in the third quarter reflected downturn in exports and decelerations in nonresidential fixed investment and PCE. Imports increased in the third quarter after decreasing in the second. However private inventory investment offset these downward movements.
Read the BEA release.
