“Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2018, according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 4.2 percent,” the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on Friday.
Key takeaways from the press release
- The increase in real GDP in the third quarter reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, state and local government spending, federal government spending, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from exports and residential fixed investment.
- Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.
- Current dollar GDP increased 4.9 percent, or $247.1 billion, in the third quarter to a level of $20.66 trillion.
- The PCE price index increased 1.6 percent, compared with an increase of 2.0 percent.
- Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index increased 1.6 percent, compared with an increase of 2.1 percent.
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