Real gross domestic product for the U.S. decreased at an annual rate of 2.9 percent in the first quarter according to the third estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 2.6 percent.

The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from private inventory investment, exports, nonresidential fixed investment, state and local government spending, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive contribution from personal consumption expenditures. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

This GDP estimate is based on more complete source data than was available for the second estimate issued last month. In the second estimate, real GDP was estimated to have decreased 1 percent. With the third estimate for the first quarter, the increase in personal consumption expenditures was smaller than previously estimated, and the decline in exports was larger than previously estimated.