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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (285882)	4/28/2006 10:26:05 AM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574004

you don't see this in France. US economy roars back to 4.8 percent growth rate Apr 28 9:30 AM US/Eastern Email this story US economic growth surged to an annual rate of 4.8 percent in the first quarter, its best performance in more than two years, the Commerce Department said. Helped by robust consumer spending, growth in gross domestic product rose sharply in the January-March period from the weak pace of 1.7 percent seen in the fourth quarter of 2005. The Commerce Department's first estimate for the first quarter was roughly in line with Wall Street forecasts for growth of 4.9 percent, and was the fastest pace of expansion since the third quarter of 2003. The strong rise in GDP came on the back of higher personal spending, equipment and software expenditure, exports and federal government spending. But imports, which subtract from GDP, increased. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that the US economy risks slowing later this year as the red-hot property market cools. He hinted that the central bank could pause on its long campaign of rate hikes. But in the first quarter at least, GDP snapped back after the marked slowdown at the end of last year, when the effects of Hurricane Katrina were winding their way through the world's biggest economy. Household spending jumped 5.5 percent, compared with a rise of just 0.9 percent in the previous quarter. Purchases of durable goods, such as cars and washing machines, rocketed 20.6 percent. Government spending was up 10.8 percent, owing to more expenditure in Iraq and on post-Katrina reconstruction. Companies accelerated their investment to a growth rate of 14.3 percent but also drove up their inventories, a possible sign of waning demand going forward, to subtract 0.52 points from the overall GDP figure. Real final sales of domestic product -- GDP minus changes in private inventories -- increased 5.4 percent in the first quarter, in contrast to a decrease of 0.2 percent in the fourth.