The economy grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of the year, according to the third and final estimate of gross domestic product released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Thursday.
That rate was revised down from the previous estimate of 2.2 percent, and slower than the 2.9 percent rate in the last quarter of 2017, thanks to weaker consumer purchasing and fewer exports. It also is off the 3 percent pace sought by President Trump.
Nevertheless, forecasters expect growth to pick up in the second quarter.
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin promised a “big” number for the second quarter, citing a forecast of 4.5 percent growth from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
And underlying details in Thursday’s report suggest that growth might be stronger than the headline would suggest.
In fact, growth was 2.8 percent, gauged by a measure of total gross domestic output that considers total income in additional to total spending.
Even better for the Trump administration was that business investment was revised up to a 10.4 percent rate, the strongest such mark since the third quarter of 2014.
Trump’s economists have pointed to business investment as a sign that corporations are responding to the new tax law, which was meant to encourage new investment by lowering tax rates and allowing new capital purchases to immediately be written off.
