The US economy experienced the strongest growth in three years in 2018. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 2.9 percent, according to the Commerce Department in Washington today. That was 0.7 points more than the year before. However, the recovery lost momentum in the last quarter.
Between October and December, growth shrank to 2.6 percent. In the third quarter, GDP had increased by 3.4 percent. This was already a decline – in the second quarter, 4.1 percent had been achieved.
Lower increase forecast for fourth quarter
However, analysts had expected the fourth quarter to see even lower GDP growth. The year-over-year growth almost met the target set by US President Donald Trump. He had called for taking office two years ago, an annual increase in GDP by three percent as a brand.
However, the bipartisan budget office of the US Congress predicted in January that growth this year would slow significantly to 2.3 percent. As a reason experts called a decrease in the impulses emanating from Trump’s tax cuts. The White House, on the other hand, expects similar growth to 2018.
