U.S. economy registered in the fourth quarter of 2011 an annual growth rate of 2.8%, as opposed to 1.8% in the previous three months. It’s the fastest growth since the second quarter of 2010, but below analysts’ estimates, which were expecting an advance of 3%. In 2011, U.S. GDP grew by 1.7%, almost half compared to 2010 (when growth was 3%) being the worst year since the recession, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Friday.
“The economy ended 2011 on a rather positive note but the composition of elements of growth in the last quarter of 2011 is not favorable for an advance early this year”, said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s Analytics in Pennsylvania.
Growth in the fourth quarter of 2011 was supported by the recovery of stocks after they fell in the third quarter for the first time since 2009. Stocks rose to 56 billion dollars, adding 1.94 percentage points to GDP growth. Excluding inventories, the economy recorded in the fourth quarter of 2011 an increase by only 0.8% against 3.2% in the previous three months. Significant accumulation of stocks indicates a slow recovery of the economy for the beginning of this year.
U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it would maintain the reference rate at exceptionally low levels at least until the end of 2014, much later than previously estimated, in an attempt to stimulate U.S. economic recovery. At the end of a monetary policy meeting that lasted two days, the Fed announced that the U.S. economy experienced a “moderate expansion”, adding that unemployment remains high, and long-term inflation forecasts have remained stable. In its latest economic forecasts, the Fed revised down the previous estimates of growth the U.S. economy in 2012 and 2013. For this year the Fed relies on a growth of between 2.2 and 2.7%, given that in November last year was expecting a growth of between 2.5 and 2.9%. For 2013 Fed relies on a growth of 2.8 to 3.2% (3.0 to 3.5% in the previous estimates).
