WASHINGTON – Gross domestic product increased at a 5.9% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2009, surpassing economists’ estimates as well as an earlier 5.7% advance estimate made last month, the Commerce Department reported this morning.
The upwardly revised preliminary rate reflects more complete source data than were available for last month’s estimate, Commerce said.
Specifically, businesses began to restock their inventories at a faster clip than previously expected and exports jumped more than initially thought, Commerce said. Nonresidential fixed investment was also higher than in the first estimate.
Meanwhile, consumer spending rose 1.7% annually in the fourth quarter, revised from a 2.0% rise estimated last month and a 2.8% increase in the third quarter.
The increases represent the first back-to-back quarterly consumer spending increase in two years.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 5.6% GDP growth for the quarter, according to the median estimate.
Though the overall 5.9% fourth quarter rise is the largest GDP increase since the third quarter of 2003, when GDP rose 6.9%, Commerce still estimates that for all of 2009, GDP fell 2.4%. It is the largest annual decline since a 10.6% drop in 1946.
While GDP rose 2.2% in the third quarter, it fell 0.7% and 6.4% in the two preceding quarters.
Exports during the fourth quarter jumped 22.4 %, compared with an 18.1% rise estimated last month, while exports of goods surged 34.2%, ahead of the 28.1% rise estimated last month. It is the largest increase in the exports of goods since the second quarter of 1978, when the category spiked 68.2%.
Today’s report is the second of three quarterly GDP estimates. Final figures for the fourth quarter will be released on March 26.
