Find the latest GDP data release for the United States from the BEA website (htt

Question

Find the latest GDP data release for the United States from the BEA website (https://www.bea.gov/index.htm).

1. Identify and report the estimated real GDP rate of growth with respect to the previous quarter on an annual basis, and with respect to the same quarter of the previous year.

2. Comment on what these numbers reveal about the economy’s trajectory. Is the release consistent with recent trends or are there substantial surprise elements in the new data? In other words, is there a possible change of trajectory or do you see a continuation of recent trends?

3. Identify which component of GDP has driven the change in GDP and why.

4. Identify a main message on the state of the US economy from the data release, and convey it with captions in at least one chart or table. (For example, if the release turns out to be the best outcome in a few quarters, or years, you can add a chart highlighting this. Or, if a release turns out to be driven by one particular component of GDP, a table might draw a contrast between that particular component and all others.)

Explanation / Answer

1. According to the latest data available real GDP increased at a rate of 2.2% in first quarter of 2018 as compared to 2.9% increase in the fourth quarter of 2017 and 1.2% increase first quarter of 2017

2. From the recent data we observe that the trend is when to change its trajectory while it was increasing from quarter 1 of 2017 it has started to decline post quarter 4 of 2017. However looking at the previous years, we see that the real GDP has been at a higher level and will continue the rise in the subsequent quarters.

3. Over the same period last year there has been a 1 percentage point increase however when compare to the fourth quarter of 2017 we see a deceleration in the real GDP growth caused primarily by a decrease in the personal consumption expenditure, local government expenditure, exports and federal government expenditure which otherwise have increased over the 1 year period from 2017 Q1 to 2018 Q2.

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