Washington – The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 2 percent from July to September, the government reported Friday.
The data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis was in line with forecasts from mainstream economists and marked the fifth straight quarter of growth since the end of the Great Recession.
The 2 percent growth rate is hardly robust, however, and was less than half the 5 percent rate in the final three months of 2009.
Friday’s numbers did improve on a revised annualized growth rate of 1.7 percent from April to June this year. Consumer spending rose 2.6 percent in the recently ended quarter, a sign that Americans are slowly loosening the purse strings.
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