The US economy ended 2014 with lower growth than … – El Financiero Costa Rica

The US economy ended 2014 with lower growth than … – El Financiero Costa Rica

The US economy grew at an annual rate of 2.6% in the last quarter of 2014 , marking a slowdown after the advance 5% from July to September although the consumer spending posted its best figure since 2006, the Commerce Department reported.

The first calculation of the Government on the evolution of the product Gross domestic product (GDP) between October and December was lower than expected by economists, who had forecast growth of about 3%.

The consumer spending, which equals more than two thirds of economic activity in the country, increased by 4.3% between October and December having done at a rate of 3.2% in the previous period and thus experienced its largest quarterly gain since 2006.

But that f eath growth of consumer spending did nothing to prevent the slowdown , driven by reduced business investment, weak public expenditure and increased imports, according to the Government’s report.

In the last three months of the year, business investment contracted by 1.9%, after have had strong expansion in the previous two quarters, while the federal government spending fell 2.2%.

The chief economic adviser White House, Jason Furman said in a statement that despite the slowdown, the report is further proof of “revival” of the US economy after the serious crisis of 2009.

The strategy of President Barack Obama to build an economy for the middle class will help” ensure that our recovery is widely shared with all American families, “said Furman.

The proposals for an economy that benefits the middle class were presented by Obama last week in his annual State of the Union address to Congress and are included also in the budget for 2016 that the president will announce week on Monday and that includes more spending on defense, education and health.

With growth of 4.6% in the second quarter and 5% in the third, the US economy recorded between April and September most half expansion since mid-2003 after contracting by 2.1% between January and March suffered by effects of a particularly cold winter.

Throughout 2014 the economy grew moderately at an average rate of 2.4%, slightly above the 2.2% the previous year, according to the Commerce Department.

Economists anticipate that 2015 will be a good year because they believe that consumer spending will be strengthened by improving labor market and falling prices of gasoline.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently raised its GDP growth forecast US 2015 and stood at 3.6% in contrastecon the slowdown in emerging economies and weakness in the euro zone.

At the end of its meeting This week, the Federal Reserve (Fed) remarked “solid” growth of the US economy .

In addition, in a statement, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC, in English) the central bank stressed that “labor market conditions have improved even more, with strong gains in employment,” which ended December with an unemployment rate of 5.6% , the lowest since June 2008.

However, as expected, the Fed remained unchanged interest rates, which are between 0 and 0.25%, and his silence on when decide upload, which is expected by mid-year.

Meanwhile, Wall Street opened today (Friday) with losses and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the main indicator, 0.26% was left following the jobs data on the evolution of US GDP in the last quarter of 2014.