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Former Council of Economic Advisors acting chair Tomas Philipson discusses the price of crude oil and the Middle East conflict on ‘The Bottom Line.’
This is a developing story about the final reading of U.S. first-quarter GDP. Please check back for updates.
The U.S. economy grew at a faster pace than expected in the first quarter, according to the Commerce Department’s estimate.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) on Thursday released its final reading of first-quarter GDPwhich showed the economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.1% in the three-month period including January, February and March.
The Commerce Department released its final estimate of first-quarter GDP on Thursday. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
That figure was higher than the expectations of economists polled by LSEG, who had estimated 1.6% GDP growth in the first quarter. The figure was initially estimated at 2% before it was lowered to 1.6% in the BEA’s first revision.
US ECONOMY GREW AT 0.5% IN FOURTH QUARTER
It comes after the U.S. economy grew at a rate of roughly 2.1% in 2025. The second half of last year saw 4.4% annualized growth in the third quarter and 0.5% in the fourth quarter.
The BEA reported that the main categories that contributed to the rise in real GDP in the first quarter were investment, exports, government spending and consumer spending. Imports increased in the first quarter.
Across industries, the biggest contributors to GDP growth were the information technology sector; the federal government; professional, scientific and technical services; and durable goods manufacturing. The main offsets to GDP were declines in retail trade, wholesale trade, along with finance and insurance.
Much of the investment in the information sector was directed toward information processing equipment and computers amid the artificial intelligence (AI) buildout. Investments in software as well as research and development.
