GDP Sustainability in Question
The economy grew at a 2.2% annual rate in the first quarter, according to initial GDP figures. But some of the underlying components were mixed.
I like to look at the contributions to GDP from individual components and usually strip out the contribution from inventories. Inventories that get added in one quarter get depleted in another, so I want to focus on what actually gets sold. That metric is real final sales of domestic product, which is the true, underlying measure of demand. In the first quarter, that increased by only 1.6%, after inching up by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Inventories added 0.59 percentage points to growth....773 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
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