Washington, DC–Real gross domestic product increased 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2018, real GDP increased 2.2 percent.
The increase in real GDP reflected increases in consumer spending, inventory investment, exports, government spending, and business investment that were partly offset by a decrease in housing investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased in the first quarter.
“This blockbuster GDP report shows that President Donald J. Trump’s policies are unleashing the vitality of the American economy, fulfilling the President’s promise for 3 percent economic growth and benefiting American workers in the form of better jobs and higher wages,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “The Trump economy has repeatedly defied the skeptics who predicted an economic downturn and has restored America’s position in the world as a consistent source of economic growth.”
The U.S. economy has gotten off to a strong start so far in 2019. In January and February of 2019, the two months for which data is available, the U.S. trade deficit dropped well below expectations. This trend continued as exports alone drove nearly half a percentage point of overall GDP growth in the first quarter.
After starting off the year by adding over 300,000 jobs in January, the economy ended the first quarter at a 3.8 percent unemployment rate. In February, annual wage growth for hourly workers increased by 3.4 percent, the fastest rate since early 2009.
