Business Spending Helps Grow Economy in 2nd Quarter
The US economy has showed the strongest quarterly growth in more than a year, growing at a 3.4% annual pace in the second quarter of 2007. That figure is based on the new gross domestic product figure that was released today by the Commerce Department. The new quarterly growth number marked a significant improvement from the first quarter of this year when economic growth fell to almost nill at just a 0.6 percent pace. That was the slowest growth the US economy had experienced in almost four years.
Increased spending by businesses and government fueled the rebound in the second quarter, which runs from April to June. The news wasn't all good however. Individuals were more frugal in their spending, grappling with high gasoline prices and the slumping housing market. The bad housing market continued to have ill effects on the national economic activity in the spring but not at the same level as it had in previous quarters.
The economy's second quarter surge was better than the 3.2 percent growth rate expected by economists. It was the highest level of growth since the first quarter of 2006, when the economy expanded at an annual rate of 4.8%.
