U.S. economic growth continues to accelerate
By Daryl Delano -- Industrial Distribution, 5/1/1999
The long-awaited slowdown in the nation's economic growth rate has yet to materialize. However, the Commerce Department recently reported that the nation's gross domestic product -- the total output of all goods and services produced -- increased at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 6.1% during the final quarter of 1998.For the year as a whole, the nation's GDP is estimated to have expanded by 3.9% for the second year in a row. At this time last year, the consensus view was that the U.S. economy would do well to grow by much more than 2% during 1998. Consumer spending rose by 4.8% last year -- its sharpest annual gain since 1984. Business investment in new equipment, which had grown by what was widely considered to be an unsustainable 12.1% rate during 1997, confounded the experts and soared by another 16.6% last year.
And the economy takes plenty of momentum with it into the early months of this year. Fourth-quarter growth in nondurable goods purchases by consumers was at an annualized rate of 4.1%, almost twice the rate recorded during the year's third quarter. And consumer spending for durable goods -- including the appliances that go into new or remodeled homes -- grew at a 20.1% rate. During the third quarter of last year, consumer purchases of new durable goods increased a paltry 2.4%.
The fourth-quarter news for the explicitly construction-related sectors of GDP was equally good. Investment in nonresidential structures (this includes money spent on both new construction as well as spending for renovation/retrofit/reconstruction work) rose at a solid 7.4% rate during the final three months of last year. And residential construction investment (including both new construction and additions, alterations, and major replacements work) continued to roll along; investment for all of 1998 totaled 10.4% more than in 1997.
There are no other articles related to this article.Talkback
Related Content
Related Content
Sponsored Links
View All Blogs
