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The nation's economy performed well above expectations in the third quarter, according to an advance ""GDP estimate"":http://bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/2013/gdp3q13_adv.htm released Thursday by the ""Bureau of Economic Analysis"":http://bea.gov/index.htm (BEA).
[IMAGE]BEA's report shows third-quarter growth rose to an annual rate of 2.8 percent, beating the second quarter's 2.5 percent. The median forecast among economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 2.0 percent growth.
BEA's advance estimate is the first of three that will be released for the third quarter. The second estimate, which will pull its numbers from a more complete data picture, which be released December 5.
According to the government, the increase in real GDP in Q3 ""primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, exports, residential fixed [COLUMN_BREAK]
investment, nonresidential fixed investment, and state and local government spending."" Gains were partially offset by a decline in federal government spending and an increase in imports, which contribute negatively to the calculation of GDP.
Real residential fixed investment, a measure of housing's contribution to the economy, increased 14.6 percent, pulling up from 14.2 percent in Q2. Real nonresidential fixed investment slowed down, meanwhile, increasing 1.6 percent--down from 4.7 percent in the second quarter.
Consumer spending numbers were less encouraging, coming in at 1.5 percent. Expenditures on durable goods increased 7.8 percent compared to 6.2 percent in the second quarter, while non-durable goods increased 2.7 percent compared to 1.6 percent. Meanwhile, spending on services barely grew at 0.1 percent compared to an increase of 1.2 percent the previous quarter.
The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.8 percent, ramping up from 0.2 percent in the final Q2 report. Removing food and energy prices, the price index was up 1.5 percent compared to 0.8 percent.
Disposable personal income increased by $138.1 billion--4.5 percent--in the third quarter, beating out a gain of $103.2 billion in the second. Accounting for price changes, though, real disposable income was up only 2.5 percent, down a percentage point.
The personal saving rate--personal saving measured as a percentage of disposable income--was 4.7 percent, slight ahead of the second quarter.
