Economic growth accelerated during the third quarter of 2023, rising 4.9% after rising a revised 2.1% during the second quarter of 2023, according to CNBC. Economists had been expecting growth of 4.7%.
The acceleration in growth is attributed to strong consumer spending and increases in inventories, exports, residential investment and government spending.
Consumer spending as measured by personal consumption expenditures increased 4% and accounted for 2.7 percentage points of the total gross domestic product increase. Inventories accounted for 1.3 percentage points.
Government spending and investment increased 4.6%, and gross private domestic investment jumped 8.4%.
The GDP increase marked the biggest gain since the fourth quarter of 2021.
Growth has kept pace because consumer spending has exceeded expectations; the consumer was responsible for about 68% of GDP in the third quarter. Although most economists expect growth to slow considerably during the coming months, they generally think the U.S. can avoid a recession.
