Reuters points out here that growth in the first half now comes to . . . 0.9%:
"The economy grew 0.9 percent in the first half of this year and growth for 2014 as a whole could average above 2 percent. The first quarter contraction, which was mostly weather-related, was the largest in five years."
Note that expectations at fxstreet had bumped up from 2.9% earlier to just 3.0% before this morning's BEA release, which will probably end up being closer to the truth two months from now in the final estimate than today's 4% print.
Recall the saga of the first quarter:
Advance estimate +0.1%
2nd estimate -1.0%
Final estimate -2.9%
Comprehensive revision released today -2.1%.
So now the terrible winter quarter to kick off the year was actually only 28% less bad than we thought a month ago, 110% worse than we thought two months ago, and 2200% worse than we thought three months ago.
That's progress!
