US economy expands 1.9% in first three months of 2012
Official data released today showed that American economy expanded just 1.9 per cent in the March quarter, lower than the previous estimate of 2.2 per cent for the period.
The slow growth of the world's largest economy comes at a time when European debt turmoil is impacting global financial markets and most of the economies worldwide.
"Real
gross
domestic
product
--
the
output
of
goods
and
services
produced
by
labour
and
property
located
in
the
US
--
increased
at
an
annual
rate
of
1.9
per
cent
in
the
first
quarter
of
2012,"
according
to
the
second
GDP
estimate
released
by
the
US
Bureau
of
Economic
Analysis.
The
latest
figure
is
based
on
more
complete
data
than
were
available
for
the
advance
estimate
issued
last
month.
In the last three months of 2011, the economy had expanded 3 per cent.
The decline in 2012 March quarter growth was on account of deceleration in private inventory investment and fall in non-residential fixed investment, among others, it said.
However, consumer spending rose 2.7 percent in the first three months of 2012 compared to 2.1 percent in the 2011 December quarter.
In the latest March quarter, the American economy was worth USD 15.45 trillion.
PTI