{"id":872401,"date":"2026-08-26T18:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/872401\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T18:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:32:10","slug":"us-economy-expanded-at-sluggish-1-5-pace-in-second-quarter-on-par-with-earlier-estimate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/872401\/","title":{"rendered":"US economy expanded at sluggish 1.5% pace in second quarter, on par with earlier estimate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The U.S. economy grew at a sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June. But consumer spending<\/a> stayed strong. <\/p>\n

Growth in gross domestic product \u2014 the nation’s output of a goods and services \u2014 decelerated from a 2.1% pace from January through March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The second-quarter growth number was unchanged from the department’s first estimate<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Still, consumer spending \u2014 which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity \u2014 increased at a healthy 3.4% annual clip, up from 0.5% in the January-March period. <\/p>\n

The reason for the lackluster growth was imports. They are subtracted from growth because GDP is only supposed to count domestic production. Imports rose at a 12.5% annual pace from April through June, partly due to a surge in shipments of computer chips and other products that support artificial intelligence investment<\/a>, and sliced 1.64 percentage points off second-quarter growth. <\/p>\n

Beyond the headline figures, the U.S. economy has proven surprisingly resilient in the face of fighting with Iran<\/a> and the spike in energy prices<\/a> it caused. Business investment, excluding housing, rose at a 8.5% pace in the second quarter, reflecting the AI investment boom. And a measure of the economy’s underlying strength \u2014 which strips out volatile government spending and trade numbers \u2014 grew at a strong 4.2% rate, up from 1.7% in the first quarter. <\/p>\n

Investment in housing rose, ticking up for the first time since the end of 2024. The housing market has been depressed by high mortgage rates,. <\/p>\n

Wednesday’s report was the second of three Commerce Department looks at second-quarter GDP growth. The third and final report is due Sept. 30. <\/p>\n

Also on Wednesday, the U.S. reported that an inflation<\/a> measure closely watched by the Federal Reserve was unchanged last month in the latest sign that many Americans are still struggling with higher costs<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Commerce Department’s report<\/a> showed that prices rose 3.7% in July compared with a year earlier, but the pace was the same as June. Inflation has worsened since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February, when it stood at 2.9%. It’s noticeably above the Fed’s target of 2%. <\/p>\n

Stubbornly high prices are shaping up to be a key issue in the midterm elections, now just 10 weeks away, particularly as the Iran war keeps gas prices high<\/a>, President Donald Trump is threatening new tariffs<\/a> on Canada<\/a> and China<\/a>, and spending on AI infrastructure has pushed up the cost<\/a> of computers, gaming consoles, and semiconductors. <\/p>\n

Paul Wiseman, The Associated Press <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> An employee checks a customer’s identification card before checking out alcohol at a cash register in a grocery store in Arlington Heights, Ill., Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh) – The Associated Press \"\"<\/a> Customer shop at a grocery store in Arlington Heights, Ill., Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh) – The Associated Press <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The U.S. economy grew at a sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June. But consumer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,88,13235,46,64269,5897],"class_list":["post-872401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-commerce-department","tag-consumer-spending","tag-economy","tag-gross-domestic-product","tag-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}