Today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released their second "estimate" of the Q3 2011 GDP report showing that the economy continued to expand but at a notably slower pace than originally estimated with real GDP increasing at an annualized rate of just 1.8% from Q2 2011.
On a year-over-year basis real GDP increased 1.46% while the quarter-to-quarter non-annualized percent change was 0.45%.
The latest quarterly results indicate that the most notable source of weakness in the economy came from the change in private inventories component resulting in an overall contribution of -1.35% to GDP while government expenditures with non-defense spending declined 3.8% and state and local spending declined by 1.6%.
Fixed investment purportedly made notable contributions to Q3 GDP with non-residential fixed investment increasing 15.7% from Q2 2011 while residential fixed investment increased 1.3% over the same period.
Keep in mind that these results are likely very poorly estimated and are sure to be revised notably in following quarters and even years to come.
