A Complete Breakdown Of US GDP Growth In One Simple Chart

A Complete Breakdown Of US GDP Growth In One Simple Chart

from Clusterstock by Sam Ro

The first reading on Q1 GDP just came out and the headline number was a miss.  Growth decelerated to a pace of just 2.2 percent from 3.0 percent in Q4.  Economists were looking for a 2.5 percent.
However, the headline belied some good news in the underlying figures.  Personal consumption jumped 2.9 percent; economists were looking for 2.3 percent.  Also government spending fell 5.9 percent, which confirms that they're not the ones driving this economy.
The bad news from the BEA:

The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in private inventory investment and a downturn in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by accelerations in PCE and in exports.