The U.S. economy grew at a 2.8% annual pace last quarter as consumers continued to open their wallets despite elevated interest rates.
Forecasters expected the country’s gross domestic product — the total value of goods and services produced in the U.S. — to come in at 2.6% in the three-month period ended in September, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet. The latest GDP figure is down slightly from the second quarter’s growth of 3%.
The American economy, the world’s biggest, has shown surprising resilience in the face of sharply higher borrowing rates as the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy in a bid to tame inflation. Despite widespread predictions that the economy would succumb to a recession, however, it has kept growing, with hiring and consumer spending holding steady.
Wednesday’s GDP report marks one of the last major economic readings before the November 5 election, with the monthly jobs report due on Friday. Employers are expected to have hired 120,000 workers in October, a slower pace than September’s 254,000 new jobs, according to FactSet. However, recent hurricanes and the East Coast port strike could drag down those numbers.
“Despite earlier fears that the U.S. economy was headed for recession, growth continued to outperform other” developed markets, noted Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, in a Wednesday research note. “Overall, the U.S. economy appears to…
