May 2007

Real gross domestic product – the output of goods and services produced by labor and property in the U.S. – increased at an annual rate of 0.6% in the first quarter 2007, according to preliminary estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The estimate is based on more complete source data than advance data released last month, when the increase was estimated at 1.3%.

In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 2.5%.

The increase in GDP was offset by negative contributions from private inventory investment, residential fixed investment and federal government spending. Imports, a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, …

Despite a soft first quarter, the U.S. economy should gradually improve through the end of the year, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI Quarterly Industrial Outlook, a report that analyzes 27 major industries.

Manufacturing industrial production expanded at a 0.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter 2007, but the MAPI forecast envisions an improved 3 percent growth rate in the second quarter.&nbsp ; For the year as a whole, though, the report predicts that manufacturing production growth will decelerate from the 4.7 percent recorded in 2006 to 2.1 percent growth in 2007, before rebounding to 3.3 percent growth in 2008.

The manufacturing inventory correction is over, the inexplicable decline in exports has passed, the January 1, 2007, EPA diesel …