Economic growth was stronger than previously thought in the last quarter of 2016.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday revised gross domestic product for the quarter to a 2.1 percent annual rate, up from 1.9 percent before, adjusted for inflation and seasonal variation.
That revision, driven by greater-than-expected consumer spending, was even better than the tenth of a percentage point private-sector forecasters had expected.
Even so, the final measure of GDP growth for the quarter, the last of President Obama’s tenure, marked a significant slowdown from the robust 3.5 percent growth in the third quarter of 2016.
And the growth rate as a whole for 2016 was just 1.6 percent, the lowest such mark since 2011.
President Trump has called for accelerating economic growth to three or four percent, a target that many economists say would be difficult to achieve on a sustained basis because of slowing population growth.
Nevertheless, there were signs of growing momentum in Thursday’s report.
For instance, final sales to private purchasers in the U.S. grew at a 3.4 percent clip, the third consecutive quarterly acceleration. That measure captures underlying momentum in the U.S. because it strips out government spending and trade.
“The U.S. economy is in solid shape,” said PNC economist Gus Faucher, predicting that growth would pick up to 2.3 percent in 2017.
