Before the Commerce Department released its latest report on the strength of the U.S. economy, expectations were high that the data would show robust growth from the summer months. As NBC News reported, it turns out the economy “grew even faster than expected” in the third quarter.
Gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced in the U.S., rose at a 4.9% annualized pace in the July-through-September period, up from an unrevised 2.1% pace in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 4.7% acceleration.
The report added that the sharp increase in economic growth came as a result of strong consumer spending, businesses building up inventories, exports, residential investment, and government spending. The Washington Post’s Heather Long described the latest GDP report as “stellar.”
The 4.9% figure — which will be revised in future months — reflects the strongest economic growth since the fourth quarter of 2021. It’s also stronger growth than in any quarter from Donald Trump’s first three years in office.
With this in mind, it was tough to blame the White House for celebrating the news.
“I always say it is a mistake to bet against the American people, and just today we learned the economy grew 4.9% in the third quarter,” President Joe Biden said in a written statement. “I never believed we would need a recession to bring inflation down — and today we saw again that the American economy continues to grow even as inflation has come down. It is a testament to the resilience of American consumers and American workers, supported by Bidenomics — my plan to grow the economy by growing the middle class.”
As for the political implications, the Democratic president’s re-election campaign released a short video highlighting rhetoric from Biden’s Republican predecessor about lower GDP growth — which Trump tried to convince the public was exceptional.
As best as I can tell, the frontrunner for the Republicans’ 2024 nomination hasn’t yet commented on the latest economic news, though I’ll gladly update this post if that changes.