The White House downplayed Friday’s report that U.S. economic growth had slowed in the fourth quarter, arguing that it was just one piece in a broader picture of promising economic signs.
U.S. economic growth slowed considerably in the fourth quarter of 2014 to a 2.6 percent annual rate, which was roughly half the pace of the prior quarter’s 5 percent, the Commerce Department said Friday.
The third quarter’s 5 percent growth rate was the strongest in a decade, and economists the Wall Street Journal surveyed had expected fourth-quarter growth of 3.2 percent. Economists attributed the decline to problems brewing abroad.
“The fact is this is one snapshot, and as you’ve heard me say for years up here now, we don’t get too excited about one great economic report or too disappointed by one that doesn’t meet expectations,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
The Obama administration is looking at the longer trends, he said, noting that just in the last six months of 2014 the economy grew at an average rate of 4 percent.
“And that is certainly robust rate of growth, and that’s momentum that we want to build on,” he said. “And that’s why so many of the policies the president laid out in the State of of the Union would try to capitalize on that momentum.”
Earnest quickly noted that the administration is concerned about the slowdown in the international economy and its impact on the U.S. economy and is watching it closely.
During the State of the Union address earlier this month, Obama declared that the U.S. had finally bounced back from the second deepest recession in its history and said the economy was coming roaring back.
He then called for new tax benefits targeting middle-class families that would cost $175 billion over 10 years, as well as a plan to make tuition for community college free for two years, which would cost an additional $60 billion.
New taxes on businesses and steeper capital gains taxes would more than pay for the proposals, Obama said — an assertion that drew criticism from Republicans who argued that those steps would hurt the still unsteady economic rebound.
