GDP Up But Below Expectations
The nation's economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the government announced. But that jump was below analysts' expectations of 3.2 percent.
As a result, U.S. stocks indexes opened mostly lower as of late this morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 index down slightly. The NASDAQ, meanwhile, was up a little.
But the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which releases information about the gross domestic product (GDP), cautioned that this latest estimate is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision. A revised estimate for the fourth quarter of 2011 will be released Feb. 29.
The bureau cited increases in consumer spending and exports as keys to the fourth-quarter output.
The annual growth estimates rose steadily with each quarter during the year. The first-quarter estimate was 0.4 percent while the third-quarter rate was 1.8 percent.
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