U.S. GDP growth picks up steam in Q2 2017

United States gross domestic product increased 2.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017, more than double the revised 1.2 percent growth rate the previous quarter, according to the “advance” estimate from the Department of Commerce.    United States gross domestic product (GDP) – the broadest measure of a nation’s overall economic health – growth accelerated considerably in the second quarter of 2017, increasing at a 2.6 percent rate, according to the “advance” advance estimate from the Department of Commerce.
   The Q2 GDP growth was more than double the revised 1.2 percent growth rate the previous quarter and in line with analyst predictions, according to a report from Reuters news service. GDP is a calculation of the value of the goods and services produced by a nation’s economy minus the value of the goods and services used up in production.
   Real U.S. GDP grew at a revised 1.6 percent rate in 2016 compared with a 2.6 percent growth rate the previous year.
   The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said the acceleration in GDP growth in the second quarter reflected increases in personal consumption expenditures (consumer spending), nonresidential fixed investment, federal government spending, and exports. Those increases were partly offset by decreases in private residential fixed investment, private inventory investment, and state and local government spending, as well as an increase in imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP.
   Real exports of goods and services grew 4.1 percent in the second quarter, according to BEA, compared with a 7.3 percent increase in the first quarter. Imports, meanwhile, grew 2.1 percent, compared with a 4.3 percent increase the previous quarter.
   In other encouraging news for the U.S. economy, the most recent data from Commerce indicates new orders for durable goods in June 2017 grew 6.5 percent to $245.6 billion following a revised 0.1 percent decrease in May.
   Commerce’s Census Bureau noted that transportation equipment, also up following two consecutive monthly decreases, drove the increase in durable goods orders, jumping 19 percent to $91.6 billion for the month. Excluding orders for transportation equipment, total durable goods orders ticked up just 0.2 percent in June.
   Shipments of manufactured durable goods were relatively stable, slipping just $100 million to $236 billion.