US Economy Supported by Trade and Inventories

The American economy unanticipatedly sustained the rapid momentum in Q3, as the inventory investment increased and the smaller trade deficit eased off the impact from hurricanes towards the fall in consumer expenditure and curbed in construction.

The country’s GDP gained 3.0 percent at an annualized rate during the months of July until September, which further strengthened the robust business equipment spending as mentioned by the Commerce Department on Friday. While goods inventories for sale added nearly three-quarters of percentage point growth during the previous quarter and the improved GDP underlines the economic health. This excludes the inventory investment, the economy was able to advance by 2.3 percent rate against the slow down by 2.9 percent during the second quarter. The estimates for domestic demand also declined to 2.2 percent versus 3.3 percent obtained in Q2.

The United States acquired 3.1 percent growth during the second quarter, and this was the first time that the U.S growth reached higher than 3 percent for two consecutive quarters. Forecasts from economists show that GDP will increase by 2.5 percent in the third quarter. According to the US administration, it seems difficult to determine the effect of hurricanes Harvey and Irma towards the GDP in the third quarter. Initial evaluation indicates that the subsequent storms generated losses amounted to $US10.4 billion of government-owned fixed assets and  $US121.0 billion ($A157.8 billion) worth of privately owned fixed assets.

Inventories cumulated from firms came in at $US35.8 billion in the Q3, which boosted inventory investment by 0.73 percentage point to GDP growth in the said quarter. The inventories contributed an output of more than tenth of percentage point in the previous period. While economists are expecting for a decent expansion from inventories in the last quarter. Despite the drop in the fourth quarter and surpassed the sharpest decline in imports for three years which led to a smaller trade deficit and provided four-tenths of percentage point to economic development. Trade supported the output for three quarters in a row.