Real GDP up 5.3%, Q1 results reveal positive contributions
26 May '06
3 min read
Real gross domestic product - the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2006, according to preliminary estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 1.7 percent.
The GDP estimates released are based on more complete source data than were available for the advance estimates issued last month. In the advance estimates, the increase in real GDP was 4.8 percent.
The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, equipment and software, and federal government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.
The acceleration in real GDP growth in the first quarter primarily reflected an upturn in PCE for durable goods, an acceleration in exports, an upturn in federal government spending, and an acceleration in equipment and software that were partly offset by a downturn in private inventory investment.
Final sales of computers contributed 0.05 percentage point to the first-quarter growth in real GDP after contributing 0.33 percentage point to the fourth-quarter growth.
The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, increased 2.8 percent in the first quarter, 0.1 percentage point more than in the advance estimate; this index increased 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter.