2Q GDP Second Estimate More Optimistic

The Bureau of Economic Analysis second estimate of second quarter gross domestic product proved more positive, rising to a healthy 3.7 percent from than its earlier estimate of 2.3 percent last month.  

In the first quarter, real GDP increased by 0.6 percent.  

BEA said its second estimate released today took into account more complete source data than were available for the “advance” estimate issued last month. With the second estimate for the second quarter, nonresidential fixed investment and private inventory investment increased; in the advance estimate, both components were estimated to have slightly decreased.  

The report said the increase in real GDP in the second quarter reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, exports, state and local government spending, nonresidential fixed investment, residential fixed investment and private inventory investment. Imports, a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.  

BEA attributed acceleration in real GDP in the second quarter to an upturn in exports, an acceleration in PCE, a deceleration in imports, an upturn in state and local government spending and an acceleration in nonresidential fixed investment, partly offset by decelerations in private inventory investment, in federal government spending and in residential fixed investment.  

The report said real gross domestic income–the value of costs incurred and incomes earned in production of goods and services in the nation’s economy–increased by 0.6 percent in the second quarter, compared to an increase of 0.4 percent (revised) in the first. The average of real GDP and real GDI, a supplemental measure of U.S. economic activity that equally weights GDP and GDI, increased by 2.1 percent in the second quarter, compared to an increase of 0.5 percent in the first quarter.