The stateside economy grew at a fairly healthy clip in the third quarter as strong consumer and business spending offset efforts by businesses to reduce an inventory glut, underscoring its resilience despite a raft of challenges.
Gross domestic product in the United States grew at a 2% annual pace, instead of the 2.1% rate reported last month, that country's Commerce Department said in its third estimate on Tuesday.
That was a sharp deceleration from the brisk 3.9% pace logged in the April-June period, however, growth remained around the economy's long-run potential.
The Federal Reserve last Wednesday raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by 25 basis points to between 0.25% and 0.5%, the first increase in nearly a decade. The rate hike was a vote of confidence in the economy, which has been buffeted by slower global demand, a strong dollar and spending cuts in the energy sector.
Economists had forecast third-quarter GDP growth revised down to a 1.9% rate. When measured from the income side, the economy grew at a 2.7% pace, not the 3.1% clip reported last month, to account for downward revisions to corporate profits.
