The US GDP Grew By 3% In The First Quarter, And The Unemployment Rate Remained High.

The US government announced that the US economy grew strongly in the first quarter, but the growth rate was slightly lower than originally expected, and consumer and business expenses were revised down. The US Commerce Department said Thursday that GDP increased by 3% from 1 to March.  

Data also show that corporate profits are picking up. After tax gains rose by 9.7%, up from 8.2% in the fourth quarter of last year. In the current quarter, corporate profits increased by 42.7% over the same period last year. The US economy continued to recover from deep recession, but the unemployment rate remained high.  

In its initial report a month ago, the government estimated that GDP grew by 3.2% in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. The 3% increase was less than the 3.4% expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, which is also lower than the 5.6% increase in the fourth quarter of last year. But the GDP surge in the fourth quarter of last year was mainly due to changes in technical factors such as inventory, rather than consumer spending. Consumer spending is a fundamental part of the US economy, accounting for about 2/3 of GDP in the United States.  

The latest report shows that consumer spending in the US grew 3.5% in the first quarter, down from 3.6% initially announced, but is still more than double the increase of 1.6% in the fourth quarter of last year, and hit the highest level since the first quarter of 2007. With the improvement of the labor market, the pockets of American consumers have also eased. The data on Thursday basically did not change the relatively mild inflation pressure in the first quarter.  

In the first quarter, the US total domestic purchase price index remained unchanged, rising by 1.7% and rising by 2% in the fourth quarter. In the first quarter, the chain weighted domestic purchasing price index increased by 1% after the correction, and the initial data increased by 0.9%. The fourth quarter increased by 0.5%.  

The GDP report released on Thursday showed that corporate spending in the first quarter was revised up by 3.1%, with a preliminary growth of 4.1%. Expenditure on equipment and software increased by only 12.7%, and initial data increased by 13.4%.