Gross Domestic Product Fourth Quarter and Year 2019 Second Estimate (Mar. 2020)

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019 according to the \""second\"" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter real GDP also increased 2.1 percent. The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures federal government spending exports residential fixed investment and state and local government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from private inventory investment and nonresidential fixed investment.  imports which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP decreased.  Real GDP growth in the fourth quarter was the same as that in the third. In the fourth quarter a downturn in imports and an acceleration in government spending were offset by a larger decrease in private inventory investment and a slowdown in PCE.