Economists Expecting Growth of 3.2% in First Quarter

The Commerce Department is soon going to give us our first look at how the US economy performed during the winter months, as they are set to release their first estimate on Q1/2013 GDP growth on Friday.

Economists are expecting real GDP growth of 3.2% for the first quarter of 2013, which would be a significant improvement over the fourth quarter of 2012, when the US economy grew at an annualized rate of 0.4%. If the US economy did grow at an annualized rate of 3.2% in Q1, this would be the strongest quarter for GDP growth since the fourth quarter of 2011 (4.1%).

2012 was a lacklustre year for the US economy - here is the recap of the quarterly real GDP growth numbers (annualized):

Q1 2012 - 2.00%
Q2 2012 - 1.30%
Q3 2012 - 3.10%
Q4 2012 - 0.40%

--

Economists are expecting that strong consumer spending helped propel the US economy to a 3.2% increase in real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2013.

How accurate is this prediction? We'll start to find out on Friday when the Commerce Department releases their first estimate.

Source: Historical GDP Growth in the United States

Filed under: General Market News