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Strategies & Market Trends : Graham and Doddsville -- Value Investing In The New Era

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To: porcupine --''''> who wrote (1619)	4/30/1999 6:14:00 PM
From: porcupine --''''>	Read Replies (1) of 1722

U.S. economy still vigorous in Q1 WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - The booming U.S. economy barely skipped a beat as it roared into 1999 on a wave of consumer spending that kept the expansion rate well above expectations, a Commerce Department report on Friday showed. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services output within U.S. borders, climbed at a 4.5 percent annual rate in the three months from January through March, down moderately from a sizzling 6.0 percent in the fourth quarter last year. That handily outpaced Wall Street economists' forecasts for a 3.3 percent rate of first-quarter growth. Consumers drained savings to boost spending at a 6.7 percent annual rate in the first quarter -- the strongest advance in personal consumption spending in 11 years, since a 7.2 percent jump in the first quarter of 1988 and up from a 5 percent increase in the fourth quarter last year. The department said personal savings -- measured as the proportion of earnings devoted to bank accounts and other savings -- shrank at a 0.5 percent rate or by $30.9 billion in the first quarter after being flat in the fourth quarter. It was the weakest performance for the quarterly savings rate since the government began compiling the figure in 1946 and meant consumers were borrowing heavily to keep shopping. Were it not for the drag on the economy from a weak international sector, GDP would have grown at an explosive rate of nearly seven percent. Trade was one of the few restraints on first-quarter growth as exports faltered and imports from hard-hit economies in Asia and Latin America swelled. Prices picked up in the first quarter, as the GDP price index accelerated to a 1.4 percent gain from 0.8 percent rise in the closing quarter last year. It was the strongest increase in nearly two years since a 1.7 percent gain in the second quarter of 1997.

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