Final Q2 GDP Shows 1.3% Growth

WASHINGTON — Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S. — increased at an annual rate of 1.3% in the second quarter of 2012, according to the third and final estimate released by the Commerce Department Thursday.

The GDP growth was short of the 1.7% growth reported during the preliminary estimate last month, which was the increase projected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. Growth decelerated from the first quarter of the year, which saw a 2% increase over the final quarter of 2011.

Personal consumption expenditures increased 1.5% in the second quarter. Excluding food and energy, PCE increased 1.7%, just shy of the economists' 1.8% prediction. The increase in real GDP reflected the gain in PCE as well as a 5.3% gain in real exports, the Commerce Department said.

Those gains were partially offset by decreases of 0.2% in federal government spending and 1% in state and local government spending, though both those government investment declines were much smaller than occurred in the first quarter of the year. National defense spending decreased 0.2%, and nondefense spending fell 0.4%.

Imports, which are subtracted from the calculation of GDP, increased 2.8% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said.

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