Resilient US economy grows 2.1 percent in 2022
window.loadAnvato({“mcp”:”LIN”,”width”:”100%”,”height”:”100%”,”video”:”8326513″,”autoplay”:false,”expect_preroll”:true,”pInstance”:”p7″,”plugins”:{“comscore”:{“clientId”:”6036439″,”c3″:”thehill.com”,”version”:”5.2.0″,”useDerivedMetadata”:true,”mapping”:{“c3″:”thehill.com”,”ns_st_st”:”hill”,”ns_st_pu”:”Nexstar”,”ns_st_ge”:”TheHill.com”,”cs_ucfr”:””}},”dfp”:{“adTagUrl”:”https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=1×1000&iu=/5678/nx.thehill&ciu_szs=300×250&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vmap&unviewed_position_start=1&ad_rule=1&description_url=https://thehill.com/feed/&cust_params=vid%3D8326513%26pers_cid%3Dunknown%26bob_ck%3D[bob_ck_val]%26d_code%3D1%26pagetype%3Dnone%26hlmeta%3D%2Ffeed%2F%26aa%3Df”},”segmentCustom”:{“script”:”https://segment.psg.nexstardigital.net/anvato.js”,”writeKey”:”7pQqdpSKE8rc12w83fBiAoQVD4llInQJ”,”pluginsLoadingTimeout”:12}},”expectPrerollTimeout”:8,”accessKey”:”q261XAmOMdqqRf1p7eCo7IYmO1kyPmMB”,”token”:”eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ2aWQiOiI4MzI2NTEzIiwiaXNzIjoicTI2MVhBbU9NZHFxUmYxcDdlQ283SVltTzFreVBtTUIiLCJleHAiOjE2NzQ3NDYwMDB9.tMR7yri6ApSG01zvy3XEtGKKx4jovByhNQ36wJiV5Zs”,”nxs”:{“mp4Url”:”https://tkx.mp.lura.live/rest/v2/mcp/video/8326513?anvack=q261XAmOMdqqRf1p7eCo7IYmO1kyPmMB&token=%7E5iu7d5YGbkS%2BNSxQZFulWrloGseZvo70MQ%3D%3D”,”enableFloatingPlayer”:true},”disableMutedAutoplay”:false,”recommendations”:true,”expectPreroll”:true,”titleVisible”:false,”pauseOnClick”:true,”trackTimePeriod”:60,”isPermutiveEnabled”:true});
The U.S. economy powered through high inflation, rising interest rates and an energy shock to grow at a solid pace over the course of 2022, according to data released Thursday by the Commerce Department.
U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.1 percent last year and at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent during the fourth quarter. That means the U.S. economy would have grown by nearly 3 percent if the pace of growth in fourth quarter lasted an entire year.
Economists had been expecting 2.8 percent annualized growth in the fourth quarter, a modest fall-off from the 3.2-percent growth rate in the previous quarter.
The solid numbers are a reflection of a consistently tight labor market that’s allowed U.S. consumers to continue spending even as many commercial economists have been warning of a recession.
“The latest GDP data shows that the economy continued to expand in the 4th quarter, which is consistent with most of the measures the NBER [National Bureau of Economic Research] uses to define recessions. Despite some slight dips in GDP in the first half of the year, this latest data suggests that the US likely made it through 2022 without entering a recession,” Jeremy Horpedahl, an economist at the University of Central Arkansas, said in an email to The Hill.
Thursday’s numbers also come amid rapidly falling inflation, which has dropped for six straight months to 6.5 percent annually in December off a high of 9.1 percent last June, effectively boosting the purchasing power of U.S. consumers. This has bolstered hopes for a “soft landing” from the Federal Reserve – lower inflation without a serious, job-killing recession.
“Many economists have gone way overboard in talking as if a 2023 recession is all but inevitable. I would put the odds of a recession this year at something like 35 percent,” Jeffrey Frankel, an economist at the Harvard Kennedy School and a former member of the committee at the National Bureau of Economic Research that officially designates recessions, said in an email to The Hill.
–Sylvan Lane contributed to this developing report
Source: TEST FEED1
