The US economy grew at an annual rate of 5.7 per cent in the last quarter, which is said to be the fastest growth since the third quarter of 2003, and a clear indicator that recession was over.
"Real gross domestic product (GDP) -- the output of goods and services produced by labour and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 5.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009, (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis," the Commerce Department said Friday.
The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from private inventory investment, exports, and personal consumption expenditures (PCE). Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said.
The acceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected an acceleration in private inventory investment, a deceleration in imports, and an upturn in non-residential fixed investment that were partly offset by decelerations in federal government spending and in PCE, it said.
Motor vehicle output added 0.61 percentage point to the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after adding 1.45 percentage points to the third-quarter change.
Final sales of computers subtracted 0.03 percentage point from the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after subtracting 0.08 percentage point from the third-quarter change, the BEA said.