Q3 GDP could be the strongest in two years

Posted Oct 10th 2009 3:10PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Forecasts, Market Matters, Economic Data, Recession

Good news! Private economists recently polled said they expect Q3 GDP to rise at an annualized rate of 3.2%. This is indeed a nice surprise.

In the second quarter, GDP shrank by 0.7% on an annual rate.

The rebound was mainly due to a rebound in personal consumption expenditures, the first increase in residential investment since the final quarter of 2005, and the reduced rate of business inventory reduction.

Added to the good news, predictions for the fourth quarter are for a 2.4% growth

Overall, for the year the forecast is that the economy will shrink by 2.5%, slightly below a previous forecast of 2.6%

While these numbers are encouraging, let's keep in mind that the yearly figures still show negative growth. Until we see year-on-year growth in GDP, we cannot rejoice too much.

Do you believe that growth will pick up next year?

Tags: GDP, inthenews

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-11-2009 @ 10:15AM

visionary said...

An increase in the 3Q GDP will be meaningless without a corresponding decrease in unemployment. The government can give corporate America as much stimulus money as it wants, if the consumer doesn't have the money to spend then that stimulus money will have been wasted. Maybe they should have given some of that stimulus money to the consumer. Ahhh yes, the arrogant and elite libs don't think the average consumer is capable of handling their own financial affairs.