The economy grew at an inflation-adjusted 3.4% annual rate in the third quarter, adjusted for seasonal variations, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday in a preliminary estimate of gross domestic product.

The reading, the first of three estimates for third-quarter GDP, indicates that economic growth increased from the second quarter of this year, when it clocked in at a 2.2% rate. The growth rate was 2.5% in the first quarter.

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