GDP Revised to 2.7% for Q1 2010

U.S. gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 2.7% in the first quarter of 2010, according to the third estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Friday, June 25. The third estimate came in lower than the second estimate of 3.0% on May 27.

Economists, who expected the third estimate would come in at 3.0%, are concerned about the continuing drop in real GDP, which measures the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located nationwide. In the fourth quarter of 2009, real GDP increased 5.6 percent.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, exports, and nonresidential fixed investment. Those positive factors were partly offset by negative contributions from state and local government spending and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

“The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected decelerations in private inventory investment and in exports, a downturn in residential fixed investment, a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment, and a larger decrease in state and local government spending that were partly offset by an acceleration in PCE,” the Bureau said in a release.