US economy grew at solid 2.6 per cent rate in fourth quarter
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew at a solid rate of 2.6 per cent in the final three months of last year, helped by the fastest consumer spending since the spring of 2016 and a big rebound in home construction.
The fourth quarter advance in the gross domestic product, the country’s total output of goods and services, followed gains of just above 3 per cent in the second and third quarters, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The slowdown in the October-December period reflected a worsening trade deficit and less growth in inventory restocking by companies.
For all of 2017, the economy grew 2.3 per cent. That is a significant improvement from a 1.5 per cent gain in 2016 but little changed from the modest 2.2 per cent average growth rate turned in since the Great Recession ended.
Economists are looking for even better growth this year, propelled by the $1.5 trillion tax cut that President Donald Trump pushed through Congress in December. The Trump administration contends that its economic program of tax cuts, deregulation and tougher enforcement of trade laws will lift economic growth to sustained rates of 3 per cent or better in coming years. In the 8 1/2 years of the current recovery, the growth rate has averaged 2.2 per cent, the weakest expansion since the end of World War II.