U.S. economy grows at fastest pace for 11 years

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 5% in the third quarter, its fastest pace for 11 years, official figures suggest, according to BBC News.

The U.S. Commerce Department said GDP rose faster than the previous estimate of 3.9% for the July-to-September period, boosted by stronger consumer and business spending.

This was the fastest rate of growth since the third quarter of 2003.

The strong figure builds on the second-quarter growth rate of 4.6%.

Much of the third quarter growth came from consumer spending, which accounts for around two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. Consumer spending grew at an annual pace of 3.2%, the fastest since the fourth quarter of 2013.

Growth in business investment was raised to a rate of 8.9% pace from an earlier estimate of 7.1%. There was a stronger pace of spending than previously thought on equipment, intellectual property products and non-residential structures.

After two strong quarters for the U.S. economy, economists predict that growth will slow to an annual rate of around 2.5% in the current October-December quarter. But they predict growth of about 3% in 2015, which would be the fastest pace since 2005.