The US economy grew at a surprisingly strong 4.3 per cent annualised rate in the third quarter, the fastest expansion in two years, as government and consumer spending, as well as exports, all increased.
US gross domestic product from July through September – the economy’s total output of goods and services – rose from its 3.8 per cent growth rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday in a report delayed by the government shutdown. Analysts surveyed by the data company FactSet forecast growth of 3 per cent in the period.
However, inflation remains higher than the Federal Reserve would like. The Fed’s favoured inflation gauge – called the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE – climbed to a 2.8 per cent annual pace last quarter, up from 2.1 per cent in the second quarter.
Economists say that persistent and potentially worsening inflation could make a January interest rate cut from the Fed less probable, even as centra
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