US first-quarter growth upwardly revised to 1.4%

Washington, June 30 (IANS) The US economy grew at an annual rate of 1.4 per cent in the first quarter, according to a report on Thursday from the Commerce Department, which upwardly revised its earlier readings.

This final assessment of gross domestic product growth between January and March was higher than a pair of earlier readings, the first of which put the year-on-year rise in first-quarter GDP at 0.7 per cent and the second at 1.2 per cent, Efe news reported.

But the 1.4 per cent increase was still lower than the 2.1 per cent annual growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2016.

The higher GDP reading was due to an upward revision in consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of US economic activity and was found to have grown by 1.1 per cent, up from 0.6 per cent in the second reading, the Commerce Department said.

Growth in first-quarter exports also were revised upward from 5.8 per cent in last month's report to 7 per cent in the third and final reading.

Annual US GDP growth has come in at less than 3 per cent for 11 consecutive years, with the world's biggest economy expanding at a clip of just 1.6 per cent last year, its slowest pace since 2011.

US President Donald Trump, who took office on January 20, has vowed to bring about sustained economic growth rates of between 3 per cent and 4 per cent by boosting infrastructure spending and sharply lowering the corporate tax rate.

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