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Box 59, Appleton, WI 54911. Periodicals postage paid at Appleton, WI and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Customer Service, PO Box 1387, Fort Smith, AR 72902. ATTENTION ROUNDUP USERS FILE A CLAIM BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT! If you or a loved one ever used ROUNDUP WEEDKILLER and then were diagnosed with: Lymphoma Leukemia Other serious blood cancers YOU COULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR COMPENSATION! 920-268-1033 EA AL A LIG 10 GU Say to Cleaning Out Your Gutters. Protect Your Home With LeafFilter.
AFTER BEFORE We offer financing that fits your budget! 1 See Representative for full warranty details. coupon per household. No obligation estimate valid for 1 year. 1Subject to credit approval. Call for details AR CA CT FL IA ID LA MA MD 2102212986, MN MT ND 47304, NE NJ NM NV NY H-52229, OR PA RI TN UT VA WA WV www.LeafFilter.com/grop Promo: 364 20 OFF Your Entire OFF Seniors Military CALL TODAY FOR A FREE INSPECTION! 920-666-0834 LET THE PROS HANDLE IT! TM FULL SERVICE GUTTER PROTECTION SCHEDULE YOUR FREE INSPECTION NOW! 920-666-0834 The economy slowed more than ex- pected in the quarter as weaker business stockpiling and exports solid consumer spending and a of housing construction.
The gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services pro- duced in the U.S., expanded at a season- ally adjusted annual rate of 1.6% from January to March, the Commerce De- partment said Thursday. down from robust growth of 4.1% in the sec- ond half of last year and the lowest read- ing since spring 2022. also below the 2.5% gain projected by economists in a Bloomberg survey. However, the pullback was caused by businesses that replenished their inventories more slowly and feeble growth in exports two volatile catego- ries that the fundamental health. Final sales to pri- vate domestic purchasers which ex- cludes those elements as well as gov- ernment spending grew a robust 6.1%.
That there is still a lot of positive underlying econ- omist Paul Ashworth of Capital Eco- nomics wrote in a note to clients. Ian Shepherdson, chief economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics, acknowl- edged that last slowdown in growth can be traced largely to inven- tories and exports. But he added that consumption is also starting to wobble. Consumer spending still solid Consumer spending, which makes up about of economic activity, has underpinned buoyant growth. Con- sumption grew a solid 2.5% early this year following a 3.3% gain in the fourth quarter.
The rise was driven by an increase in spending on health care and services. Purchases of goods, including cars and gasoline, declined. Shepherdson said the 2.5% increase in spending was less than the econo- mists expected and below the recent trend, heralding a sharper in the months ahead. ability to open their wal- lets in recent months surprised some analysts because pandemic-related savings have largely run out, especially for low- and middle-income house- holds. Credit card debt is at record levels while delinquencies are historically high.
But employers have added a booming average of 276,000 jobs per month this year. While wage growth has moderated, average pay still rose 4.7% annually in March, the Federal Reserve Bank of At- wage tracker says. giving many Americans the wherewithal to splurge, especially now that pay in- creases are outpacing Shepherdson, however, expects job growth to slow Housing helps power growth Housing construction and renova- tion surged 13.9%, the most in three years and the third increase after nine straight quarterly declines. Many homeowners selling be- cause they want to be hit with a much higher new mortgage rate. causing a dire shortage of existing homes on the market and prodding builders to put up more single-family houses.
Housing construction also has been juiced by the prospect of interest rate cuts this year, which led to a decline in 30-year mortgage rates from about last fall to 6.6% early this year. Recently, however, mortgage rates have topped as resurgent sparked fore- casts of fewer rate cuts. Business investment grew 2.9% after rising 3.7% the prior quarter. Outlays for computers, delivery trucks, factory ma- chines and other equipment rose a modest 2.1% as companies faced higher borrowing costs. Spending on build- ings, oil rigs and other structures dipped 0.1%.
However, business stockpiling sput- tered. Companies added to their inven- tories more slowly or drew them down after replenishing briskly the previous quarter, reducing growth by 0.35 per- centage points. Such stockpiling has been volatile and typically the econo- underlying health. Companies heavily stocked up in 2021 in response to supply chain snarls and product shortages, leading to big swings the past couple of years. Government outlays rose 1.2%, down from 4.6% the previous quarter and the weakest showing in nearly two years.
State and local purchases had been bol- stered by infrastructure and clean ener- gy projects spurred by sweeping federal legislation. But revenue has declined in recent quarters, in part because the fed- eral pandemic-related aid has been running out. The big interest rate question Recession pessimists are becoming harder to Before report, forecasters the odds of recession have dropped to from last May, according to a survey by Wolters Kluwer Blue Chip Economic Advisors in early April. Since late 2022, the econo- my repeatedly has forecasts of a sharp pullback or recession, shrugging the Federal aggressive in- terest rate hikes and the spike those high rates were intended to tame. The disappointing showing last quarter could soften the views of Fed of- who say in no rush to cut rates following an acceleration in con- sumer prices in the three months of the year.
Yet any concerns about ging growth could be blunted by the strength of the pillars: con- sumer and business spending. As recently as late March, the Fed was still predicting three rate cuts in 2024 as annual slowed from a 40-year high of 9.1% in mid-2022 to about according to the consumer price index. But that was before the March report, released earlier this month, revealed a third straight up- tick in price gains, leaving at 3.5%. well above the goal. Futures markets now forecast two cuts.
Some analysts believe weaker-than-expected report signals the start of a broader slowdown in the economy. That, along with the resump- tion of a more rapid downshift, could still allow the Fed to plow ahead with multiple rate decreases, some fore- casters say. US economy grows at 1.6% rate in Q1 Paul Davidson USA TODAY.
