Today’s final estimate of Q4’11 GDP came in unchanged, and as expected, at 3.0%.
The internals were largely unchanged as well with inventories up 1.8% and final sales up 1.1%.
For all of 2011, the GDP will be recorded as a gain of 1.7%. This compares to 2010’s annual rate of 3.0%. This year’s 1.7% doesn’t seem that impressive against last year’s pace. But the redeeming value of this number is that while the first part of the year was slower, thus dragging down the total, the back half picked up speed with Q4 the best of the four quarter series. True, not all of the internals fell in line with the headline ‘momentum’, but total economic activity did grow in each successive period. And the hope is that this can continue into Q1’12 and beyond.
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