The US government on Monday eased some restrictions imposed last week on China's Huawei, a sign of how the prohibitions on the telecommunications company may have far-reaching and unintended consequences.
The U.S. Commerce Department piled on more import duties on biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia, adding anti-dumping duties of 60.44% to 276.65% to already steep anti-subsidy duties on the fuels.
The US economy grew at an annual pace of 1.9% in the fourth quarter of last year, according to official figures. That was slower than the 2.2% growth rate economists had been expecting and below third quarter growth of 3.5%, which means annual GDP rose by 1.6%, the slowest since 2011 and down on 2015 when the world's largest economy expanded by 2.6%.
The US economy added 215,000 jobs in March, a little less than it did in February when 242,000 jobs were created. The unemployment rate has risen to 5% from 4.9%, which was an eight-year low, but the Labor Department said more Americans were finding jobs, which suggested a sign of confidence in the US economy. In effect this follows the report on the US economy which grew at an annualized rate of 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2015s.
The US economy grew at an annualized pace of 2.3% in the three months to June, official figures have shown. The figure - the first estimate of growth in the second quarter - followed an upwardly revised growth rate of 0.6% in the first three months of the year. The Commerce Department said growth was boosted by increased consumer spending and cheaper fuel prices.
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.
US economic growth cooled in the fourth quarter as previously reported and after-tax corporate profits took a hit from a strong dollar, which could undermine future business spending. GDP expanded at a 2.2% annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday in its third estimate of GDP. That was unrevised from the forecast the government published last month.
The U.S. trade deficit slipped 0.5% in August to 40.1 billion, the lowest since January, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Oil imports fell to their lowest level in four years.U.S. exports increased 0.2% in August to a record 198.5 billion, while imports grew 0.1% to 238 billion. After a 40.3 deficit in July, analysts expected a 40.9 billion trade gap in August.
The United States economy grew at a surprisingly robust 4.1% annual pace in the third quarter according to the Commerce Department, which was the strongest advance in nearly two years and only the third time the economy had expanded that quickly from one quarter to the next since 2006.
US consumer prices fell 0.1% in October as petrol prices dropped, the US Labor Department has said. Petrol prices fell 2.9%, the biggest drop since April. The cost of new cars, clothes and healthcare also fell. The decrease meant that annual inflation in the 12 months to October was just 1%.