Consumer, Government Spending Lead to Better-Than-Expected 4th Quarter GDP

Government and consumer spending accounted for much of the US economic growth.

Sales advertisement at a shop in the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City shopping mall in Arlington, Va., on Jan 3, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The U.S. economy expanded by more than 3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, topping economists’ expectations and ending the year on a high note.

In the year’s final three months, the growth rate for the gross domestic product (GDP)—a measure of goods and services produced for sale in the United States—was 3.3 percent, down from 4.9 percent in the third quarter but above the consensus estimate of 2 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).