Real gross domestic product for the U.S. increased at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the third quarter of 2017, according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 3.1 percent.
The increase in real GDP in the third quarter reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, private inventory investment, nonresidential fixed investment, exports, federal government spending, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by a negative contribution from residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
The slight acceleration in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected an acceleration in private inventory investment and an upturn in state and local government spending that were partly offset by decelerations in PCE, nonresidential fixed investment, and exports.
Current-dollar GDP increased 5.3 percent, or $250.6 billion, in the third quarter to a level of $19,500.6 billion. In the second quarter, current-dollar GDP increased 4.1 percent, or $192.3 billion.