FILE - 2024 Ford F-150 trucks are assembled at Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant on April 11, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. On Thursday, June 27, 2024, the government issues the third and final estimate of economic growth – the gross domestic product – in the January-March quarter. The American economy expanded at a 1.4% annual pace from January through March, the slowest quarterly growth since spring 2022, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade from its previous estimate.
Imports shaved 0.82 percentage point off first-quarter growth. Lower inventories subtracted 0.42 percentage point. Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for the Independent Advisor Alliance, called the downshift in consumer spending "a cause for concern.'' Consumers account for around 70% of U.S. economic activity.
The U.S. economy, the world’s biggest, has proved surprisingly resilient in the face of higher interest rates. The Federal Reservein 2022 and 2023, to a 23-year high, to try to tame the worst bout of inflation in four decades. Most economists predicted that the much higher consumer borrowing rates that resulted from the Fed’s hikes would send the economy into a recession.