US economy grows 2.5% in Q2

U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the second quarter this year, the Commerce Department announced Thursday. This is a welcome acceleration from an initial estimate of 1.7 percent released last month and better than market expectations. In the first quarter, U.S. real GDP gained 1.1 percent. The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment, nonresidential fixed investment, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a negative contribution from federal government spending, said the department. Real personal consumption expenditures increased 1.8 percent in the second quarter, with durable goods leading the advance by growing 6.1 percent from April to June. Personal consumption accounts for about 70 percent of the overall U.S. economic activity, thus being the main engine of the nation's economic growth. Against the backdrop of a housing recovery, real nonresidential fixed investment increased 4.4 percent in the second quarter, in contrast to a decrease of 4.6 percent in the first quarter, noted the report.