WASHINGTON — Final real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property in the U.S. — increased at an annual rate of 1.8% in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.
The gain was below the preliminary estimate of 2.0% for the third quarter, but better than the final 1.3% annual rate of growth reported for the second quarter. It was also below the 2.0% median increase projected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters.
The increase primarily reflected gains of 1.7% in personal consumption expenditures, 15.7% in nonresidential fixed investment, 4.7% in exports, and 2.1% in federal government spending. Those gains were partially offset by decreases of 1.35% in private inventory investments and 1.6% in state and local government spending. Imports, which are subtracted from the calculation of GDP, increased 1.2%, the Commerce Department said.
The price index for gross domestic purchases — the prices paid by U.S. residents for goods and services wherever produced — rose 2.0% in the third quarter, 0.1 percentage point more than last month's preliminary estimate for the quarter.
Final corporate profits increased $32.5 billion or 1.7% in the third quarter, compared to an increase of $61.2 billion in the second quarter.
