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Economic Growth Slows, Inflation Up
(http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...1_N27705890_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-ECONOMY-DC.XML)
(http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...1_N27705890_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-ECONOMY-DC.XML)
Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:25 PM ET
By Glenn Somerville
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew at a weaker-than-expected 3.1 percent annual pace in the final quarter of 2004, its slowest since the beginning of 2003 as the country's trade performance deteriorated and inflation picked up, a government report on Friday showed.
The increase in fourth-quarter gross domestic product, or GDP, which measures total output within U.S. borders, was down from a 4 percent gain in the third quarter and was the weakest since a 1.9 percent pace in the first quarter of 2003.
Still, GDP for all of 2004 advanced 4.4 percent, up from 3 percent in 2003 and the most robust since 4.5 percent in 1999. Private-sector economists generally predict continued expansion in 2005 at around 3.5 percent, which is considered to represent the U.S. economy's long-term growth potential.
Treasury Secretary John Snow, sounding a theme he will take up next week with finance ministers from the world's rich nations in London, said the GDP report "underscor(ed) the health of U.S. demand and the need for our trading partners to adopt policies that accelerate economic growth."
By Glenn Somerville
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew at a weaker-than-expected 3.1 percent annual pace in the final quarter of 2004, its slowest since the beginning of 2003 as the country's trade performance deteriorated and inflation picked up, a government report on Friday showed.
The increase in fourth-quarter gross domestic product, or GDP, which measures total output within U.S. borders, was down from a 4 percent gain in the third quarter and was the weakest since a 1.9 percent pace in the first quarter of 2003.
Still, GDP for all of 2004 advanced 4.4 percent, up from 3 percent in 2003 and the most robust since 4.5 percent in 1999. Private-sector economists generally predict continued expansion in 2005 at around 3.5 percent, which is considered to represent the U.S. economy's long-term growth potential.
Treasury Secretary John Snow, sounding a theme he will take up next week with finance ministers from the world's rich nations in London, said the GDP report "underscor(ed) the health of U.S. demand and the need for our trading partners to adopt policies that accelerate economic growth."