FILE - 2024 Ford F-150 trucks are assembled at Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant on April 11, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. On Thursday, June 27, 2024, the government issues the third and final estimate of economic growth – the gross domestic product – in the January-March quarter. WASHINGTON — The American economy expanded at a 1.4% annual pace from January through March, the slowest quarterly growth since spring 2022, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade from its previous estimate.
The first quarter’s GDP growth marked a sharp pullback from a strong 3.4% pace during the final three months of 2023. Still, Thursday’s report showed that the January-March slowdown was caused mainly by two factors — a surge in imports and a drop in business inventories — that can bounce around from quarter to quarter and don’t necessarily reflect the underlying health of the economy.
Most economists think growth has picked up in the current quarter. Matthew Martin, U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, has estimated an annual growth rate of around 2% for April through June, fueled by continued spending by America’s consumers. A forecasting tool produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta predicts a much stronger growth rate — 3%.
It didn’t happen. The economy has kept growing, though at a slower rate, and employers have kept hiring. In May, the nation, although the unemployment rate edged up for a second straight month, to a still-low 4%. At the same time, overall inflation, as measured by the government’s main price gauge, has tumbled from a peak of 9.