GDP grows at record pace
U.S. economy expands at fastest pace in almost 16 years
By Staff Writer M. Corey Goldman
March 30, 2000: 11:09 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The U.S. economy advanced at the fastest pace in almost 16 years in the fourth quarter of 1999 as consumers at home and abroad continued to fuel strong demand for U.S.-produced goods and services, the government announced Thursday.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced, grew at a 7.3 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said, above the 6.9 percent increase expected by analysts. It was the biggest gain since a 9 percent jump in the first quarter of 1984, and dwarfed the third-quarter expansion of 5.7 percent.
The GDP price deflator, a key inflation gauge, rose at a 1.9 percent annual rate, slightly below the 2 percent pace reported a month ago and a shade below economists' forecasts. For all of 1999, the U.S. economy grew at a 4.2 percent pace, while the GDP price deflator advanced 1.6 percent.
The numbers put the final seal on what analysts, investors and Federal Reserve officials already knew -- that the economy was running at white-hot pace at the end of the decade that could at some point ignite inflation. They also indicated that the economy will probably not slow down all that much in the first quarter, which ends tomorrow, despite five interest rate increases from the Fed in less than eight months.
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