US real GDP up 2.2 per cent in Q3 as economy expands slowly

Real gross domestic product in the United States, ie, the output of goods and services produced by labor and capital within the country, grew at an annual rate of 2.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2009, when compared with the previous quarter.

US real GDP decreased by 0.7 per cent in the second quarter of the current year (April-June 2009), according to the "third" estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

The GDP estimate released today is based on a wider data base than was available for the "second" estimate issued last month, BEA said. (In the second estimate, the increase in real GDP was projected at 2.8 per cent).

NBA attributed the increase in real GDP in the third quarter to  a rise in personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment, federal government
spending and residential fixed investment that was partly offset by a negative contribution from non-residential fixed investment. 

Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, also increased.

Motor vehicle output added 1.45 percentage points to the third-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.19 percentage point to the second-quarter change. Final sales of computers subtracted 0.08 percentage point from the third-quarter change in real GDP after subtracting 0.04 percentage point from the second-quarter change.