US economy grows solidly by 3.1% in Q1
WASHINGTON (AP) — The US economy grew at a solid 3.1 percent rate in the first three months, but much of that gain was based on temporary factors that will likely fade, leaving growth much slower in the current quarter.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that the first quarter advance in the gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, rose sharply from a 2.2 percent increase in the fourth quarter as the economy overcame a partial government shutdown to weakness in overseas economies.
The new GDP estimate was down slightly from an initial 3.2 percent estimate. For the current April-June quarter economists believe GDP growth will slow to less than two percent and for the year they see GDP rising a modest 2.3 percent.
That forecast is far below the expectations of the Trump administration, which is projecting annual GDP gains averaging three percent over the next decade, gains that would be well above the 2.2 percent average GDP growth seen during the current 10-year expansion, which will become the longest in US history in July.
Last year, the economy grew 2.9 percent, the best showing since a similar gain in 2015, but analysts believe much of that increase stemmed from the boost provided by the $1.5 trillion tax cut package passed in 2017, support they are forecasting will fade this year.
Some economists worry that the economy could falter even more if trade tensions between the United States and China are not resolved. The move by the United States on May 5 to boost tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $250 billion in Chinese goods after talks broke down has sent shockwaves through financial markets, with stocks down sharply this month as investors worry that a widening trade war will harm the US and global economies.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said he believes GDP growth will slow to 2.3 percent this year but that forecast is based on a truce in the coming weeks in the trade spat between the world’s two biggest economies.
“If the trade war escalates and the president follows through on his threat to raise tariffs on all Chinese imports, GDP growth will fall below two percent this year and unemployment will start to rise,” Zandi said. “The risks of a recession will become very high.”
The reason analysts believe growth will be much slower this quarter is that two factors that boosted first quarter growth — a big jump in stockpiling by businesses and a sharp contraction in the trade deficit — are not expected to last.