US economy slightly grows, unemployment claims fall

The US economy slightly grew in the second quarter of this year, whereas the unemployment claims recorded a drop, official data showed here Thursday. The Department of Commerce indicated that the real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the second quarter of 2012. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent. In the second estimate, the increase in real GDP was 1.7 percent. The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected "positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, nonresidential fixed investment, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from private inventory investment and state and local government spending." Also, imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased. The deceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected "decelerations in PCE, in nonresidential fixed investment, and in residential fixed investment that were partly offset by smaller decreases in federal government spending and in state and local government spending and an acceleration in exports." Meanwhile, the Department of Commerce indicated that in the week ending September 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 359,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 385, 000. It added that the four-week moving average was 374,000, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 378,500.