{"id":872813,"date":"2026-08-27T02:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T02:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/872813\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T02:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T02:32:12","slug":"us-economy-expanded-at-sluggish-1-5-pace-from-april-through-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/872813\/","title":{"rendered":"US economy expanded at sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: US economy expanded at sluggish 1.5% pace in second quarter, on par with earlier estimate\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on the U.S. economy remaining sluggish.<\/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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s noticeably above the Fed\u2019s target of 2%. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Sign up for Morning Wire:
\n Our flagship newsletter breaks down the biggest headlines of the day.\n <\/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","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":872814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,112148,1376,10423,5143,46,10425,2841,1687,5897,202944,51794,2845],"class_list":["post-872813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-consumer-affairs","tag-donald-trump","tag-economic-indicators","tag-economic-policy","tag-economy","tag-federal-reserve-system","tag-general-news","tag-international-trade","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-u-s-department-of-commerce","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872813","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=872813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}