The US economy expanded at a 3.7 per cent annual rate in the third quarter that was below expectations, the Commerce Department said today.
Athough the third-quarter expansion in gross domestic product - the measure of total output within the nation's borders - came in below Wall Street economists' forecasts for a 4.2 per cent pace of growth, it still was up from 3.3 per cent in the second quarter.
It was one of the final pieces of economic data before Tuesday's presidential election in which the economy's condition has been a focal point, and indicated generally that a solid expansion remains in place.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of economic activity, increased at the fastest rate in a year while a price gauge that is favoured by Federal Reserve Chairman Mr Alan Greenspan - the index of personal consumption expenditures minus food and energy - barely increased at a 0.7 per cent rate.
That was the smallest gain in this price measure in nearly 42 years, since a 0.5 per cent rise in the fourth quarter of 1962, department officials said.
The department said that consumer spending increased at a solid 4.6 per cent annual rate in the third quarter, well ahead of the 1.6 per cent rate posted in the second quarter.
Businesses also kept investing strongly, with so-called nonresidential spending growing at an 11.7 per cent rate after a 12.5 per cent pace of growth during the second quarter.