Today’s revisions of second quarter GDP showed that U.S. consumer spending grew only half as fast as reported in earlier estimates on the quarter.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity, rose an annualized 0.8% in the April-to-June quarter, according to the third estimate of gross domestic product from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The last estimate put the annualized growth rate at 1.7%. Today’s revision took the growth rate down to the weakest in more than a year.
The overall GDP growth rate remained at 2.1% as stronger business spending offset the slowdown in consumer spending.
So far, indicators for the current quarter show consumer spending picking up speed from the earlier period.
