GDP grew at 1.6% rate in the first quar­ter, low­er than expect­ed

The econ­o­my expand­ed at a 1.6% sea­son­al­ly adjust­ed annu­al rate in the first quar­ter of this year, show­ing some under­ly­ing momen­tum despite high inter­est rates from the Fed­er­al Reserve.
The new fig­ures, which are adjust­ed for infla­tion, were pub­lished Thurs­day by the Bureau of Eco­nom­ic Analy­sis in its report for gross domes­tic prod­uct. Econ­o­mists had expect­ed GDP growth to increase by 2.5%, so the read­ing is worse than antic­i­pat­ed.
Thursday’s report is the first of three esti­amtes that will be made over the com­ing months as ana­lysts get a bet­ter pic­ture of how the econ­o­my per­formed dur­ing the third quar­ter.
The new first quar­ter num­bers mark a slow­down from the pre­ced­ing quar­ter. GDP growth in the fourth quar­ter came in at a 3.4% sea­son­al­ly adjust­ed annu­al rate, show­ing the econ­o­my end­ed 2023 on stronger foot­ing than pre­vi­ous­ly real­ized.
Addi­tion­al­ly, the econ­o­my expand­ed a healthy 2.5 …