Thursday, March 29, 2012

Third Estimate of Q4 2011 GDP at 3.0 Percent, Q3 2011 at 1.8 Percent

The latest news release from the BEA is here.

About 60 percent of the real growth rate increase is from counting inventories:


The change in real private inventories added 1.81 percentage points to the fourth-quarter change
in real GDP, after subtracting 1.35 percentage points from the third-quarter change.  Private businesses increased inventories $52.2 billion in the fourth quarter, following a decrease of $2.0 billion in the third quarter and an increase of $39.1 billion in the second.

Real final sales of domestic product -- GDP less change in private inventories -- increased 1.1
percent in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of 3.2 percent in the third.