The US economy slowed dramatically in the first three months of the year, according to official data.<\/p>\n
GDP expanded at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter, which was a sharp slowdown from the 2.1% growth rate in the final three months of 2016.<\/p>\n
It was also the lowest rate of growth since the first quarter of 2014, when the economy contracted by 1.2%.<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Economic Analysis blamed lower levels of government spending and private investment.<\/p>\n
In recent years GDP growth has often been sluggish in the first quarter, but has picked up later in the year.<\/p>\n
Many economists blame that trend on the way the data is collected.<\/p>\n
“US GDP figures are typically weaker in the first quarter, so this reading is in line with the seasonal trend,” said Nancy Curtin, chief investment officer at Close Brothers Asset Management.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t yet had the expected fiscal stimulus from Trump, the effects of which may not be seen until the end of this year or the start of 2018.”<\/p>\n
She also pointed out that other data suggested strength in the US economy .<\/p>\n
“While investors might be disappointed with the reading, it has been a steady start to the year with inflation looking benign, a resilient jobs market and positive PMI [purchasing managers’] data.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US economy slowed dramatically in the first three months of the year, according to official data. GDP expanded at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter, which was a sharp slowdown from the 2.1% growth rate in the final three months of 2016. It was also the lowest rate of growth since the first quarter of 2014, when the economy contracted by 1.2%. The Bureau of Economic Analysis blamed lower levels of government spending and private investment. In recent years GDP growth has often been sluggish in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6338,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336\/revisions\/6338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}