Lates News

The impact of last year's record government shutdown in the fall and a slowdown in consumer spending caused the US economy to slow down in the fourth quarter of last year. Data released by the US Department of Commerce on Friday showed that after seasonal and inflation adjustments, the annualized growth rate of the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of last year was 1.4%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had previously expected this number to be 2.5%. The growth rate in the fourth quarter significantly slowed down compared to the astonishing growth rate of 4.4% in the summer. Federal government spending decreased by 16.6% in the fourth quarter.