US GDP growth puts UK in the shade

Date: Friday 26 Feb 2010

The US economy grew at its fastest rate in six years in the final quarter of 2009, according to revised figures from the Commerce Department.

Having originally estimated a 5.7% fourth quarter rise the Commerce Department revised the gross domestic product (GDP) figure higher to show a 5.9% increase. The rise follows a 2.2% improvement in the third quarter.

The gain was driven by an uplift in business investment, particularly in software and equipment, though consumer spending was lower than originally forecast.

Despite the strong recovery in the fourth quarter, over the whole of 2009 GDP fell by 2.4%, which was the largest annual decline since the year after World War II ended, when GDP tumbled 10.9%. In 2008 the US economy grew by 0.4%.

The fourth quarter revision from the Commerce Department put the UK’s performance in the shade. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a revised set of GDP figures on Friday morning which showed the UK grew by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, slightly more than the 0.2% economists had been expecting.

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