The US economy staged a spectacular recovery in the first quarter of this year, growing at a 5.8 percent annualized rate, the Commerce Department said yesterday.
The report was stronger than expected by economists, who had forecast an increase of around 5 percent. It was the largest increase in GDP since the the fourth quarter of 1999.
GDP growth accelerated from a 1.7 percent rate in the fourth quarter of last year.
The report was an "advance" estimate of GDP -- the output of goods and services in the US economy -- and will be revised twice in the next two months.
The report suggests that the recession declared to have begun in March last year is over and was a limited downturn with just one decrease in quarterly GDP.
However, the National Bureau of Economic Research -- which dates peaks and troughs in US business cycles -- has yet to officially declare an end to the recession.
Economists noted that much of the increase in GDP was due to companies building back inventories. Merrill Lynch's Bruce Steinberg said that "inventories contributed a large chunk of that growth, but domestic demand was a healthy 3.7 percent."
He added: "Despite some recently mixed indicators -- which simply reflect the long-awaited spring payback for the record warm winter -- we expect GDP growth to average more than 4 percent for each quarter during the remainder of the year."
Henry Willmore of Barclays Capital said the growth rate "reflected solid contributions from consumption (3.5 percent), residential investment (15.7 percent) and government spending (7.9 percent)."
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS