The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has released the "second" estimate for the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the third quarter of 2024, indicating an annual increase of 2.8 percent. This figure remains unchanged from the "advance" estimate provided last month. The updated GDP estimate reflects upward revisions to private inventory investment and nonresidential fixed investment, along with downward revisions to exports and consumer spending.
According to the report, "the increase in real GDP primarily reflected increases in consumer spending, exports, federal government spending, and nonresidential fixed investment." However, a deceleration compared to the second quarter was noted due to a downturn in private inventory investment and a larger decrease in residential fixed investment.
Current-dollar GDP rose by 4.7 percent at an annual rate, amounting to $29.35 trillion—an upward revision of $4.4 billion from previous estimates. The price index for gross domestic purchases saw a slight increase of 1.9 percent during this period.
Personal income figures also underwent revisions with current-dollar personal income increasing by $175.9 billion—a downward revision of $45.3 billion from earlier estimates. Disposable personal income grew by $122.9 billion or 2.3 percent.
Real gross domestic income (GDI) showed an increase of 2.2 percent in the third quarter, slightly up from a revised 2.0 percent in the second quarter.
Corporate profits experienced a decline of $10.2 billion in contrast to an increase witnessed in the previous quarter. Specifically, profits for domestic financial corporations decreased by $2.6 billion while those for domestic nonfinancial corporations increased by $30.8 billion.
Revisions made reflect changes across various sectors including state and local government spending as well as imports which were revised downwards.
For further details on data sources underlying these estimates, additional information is available on BEA’s website.