US economy slows down to 0.2% growth in the first quarter, but forecast is optimistic

Thursday, April 30th 2015 - 01:51 UTC

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The US economy “all but stagnated” in the first three months of the year, growing at an annual rate of just 0.2%, official figures show. The growth figure was far lower than expectations, which had forecast growth would be about 1%. Harsh winter weather for a second year dampened consumer spending, while energy companies struggling with low oil prices cut investment. Read full article

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ChrisR
Ah!

What to do?

Weaken the dollar very slightly would help exporters but the Fed just cannot bring themselves to do that, it wouldn't be 'American'.
Apr 30th, 2015 - 01:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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yankeeboy
There's no need. It was a super tough winter but now that its warm again people are buying/selling like crazy. I did 1/2 of my years business in the last 3 weeks and I usually track the broader economy pretty darn well.
Apr 30th, 2015 - 02:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Paragon
GDP came in at .2% growth, this was a whopping $6 billion worth of growth for the quarter. This number was an obvious disappointment as estimates were around 1%+. Of course the apologists were immediately out in full force to remind us of how terrible the winter was and “weather” was to blame. I would ask, isn’t that what “seasonal adjustments” are for? Steve Liesman of CNBC even posed the question why seasonal adjustments are “not working”. The obvious answer is because you can only stretch, massage and outright lie about economic numbers so far before you cannot any longer …because even the blind will see it.
May 01st, 2015 - 01:20 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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