The ‘third’ estimate of GDP is based on more complete source data than were available for the ‘second’ estimate issued last month. In the second estimate, the decrease in real GDP was also 0.6 per cent. The update primarily reflected an upward revision to consumer spending that was offset by a downward revision to exports. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, were revised down.

Real GDP decreased less in the second quarter than in the first quarter, decreasing 0.6 per cent after decreasing 1.6 per cent. The smaller decrease reflected an upturn in exports, an acceleration in consumer spending, and a smaller decrease in federal government spending that were partly offset by a downturn in private inventory investment, a deceleration in non-residential fixed investment, and a larger decrease in residential fixed investment; imports decelerated.

The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 8.5 per cent in the second quarter, an upward revision of 0.1 percentage point from the previous estimate. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 7.3 per cent, an upward revision of 0.2 percentage point. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 4.7 per cent, an upward revision of 0.3 percentage point, the BEA said.

Disposable personal income increased $253.3 billion, or 5.7 per cent, in the second quarter, a downward revision of 0.8 percentage point from the previous estimate. Real disposable personal income decreased 1.5 per cent, a downward revision of 0.9 percentage point.

Real gross domestic income (GDI) increased 0.1 per cent in the second quarter, a downward revision of 1.3 percentage points from the previous estimate. The average of real GDP and real GDI, a supplemental measure of US economic activity that equally weights GDP and GDI, decreased 0.3 per cent in the second quarter, a downward revision of 0.7 percentage point.

Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) increased $131.6 billion in the second quarter, a downward revision in change of $43.5 billion from the previous estimate, added the BEA report.

The price index for gross domestic purchases is now estimated to have increased 8.1 per cent in the first quarter, 0.1 percentage point higher than previously published. The PCE price index increased 7.5 per cent, 0.4 percentage point higher than previously published.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)