{"id":471870,"date":"2026-05-28T20:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/471870\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T20:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:37:10","slug":"us-revises-first-quarter-growth-down-while-inflation-climbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/471870\/","title":{"rendered":"US revises first quarter growth down while inflation climbs"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON: The US economy expanded less than initially estimated in the first quarter, government data showed on Thursday (May 28), while a key inflation gauge separately hit a three-year high on fallout from the Middle East war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The figures sound a warning on pressures that American households are facing ahead of midterm elections, as steeper gasoline prices squeeze budgets and a boost from tax refunds fades.<\/p>\n

Gross domestic product in the world’s biggest economy rose at an annual rate of 1.6 per cent in the first three months this year, the Commerce Department said.<\/p>\n

This was down from an earlier estimate of 2.0 per cent, with the pullback “primarily reflecting downward revisions to investment and consumer spending,” the department added.<\/p>\n

“New data showed services spending, particularly on medical services, slowed and business inventories fell by more than previously estimated,” said economist Michael Pearce of Oxford Economics.<\/p>\n

Downward revisions to consumer spending in the first quarter, alongside a slowdown in April, “point to a consumer coming under stress,” he added.<\/p>\n

Pearce was referring to another report that showed the US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure rising to its highest year-on-year rate since 2023.<\/p>\n

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 3.8 per cent from a year ago, the Commerce Department said, up from 3.5 per cent in March.<\/p>\n

US personal consumption expenditures rose by 0.5 per cent in April, but disposable personal income fell by 0.1 per cent.<\/p>\n

“You can see how Americans are getting squeezed financially right now,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.<\/p>\n

Pearce expects that higher energy prices are likely to keep GDP growth “moderate this year.”<\/p>\n

Energy costs have surged following US-Israeli strikes targeting Iran on Feb 28, engulfing the Middle East in conflict and triggering Tehran’s retaliation that has virtually blocked the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The key waterway normally sees about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies pass through it, and is also essential for the global fertiliser trade.<\/p>\n

Global costs have soared, with prices at American gasoline stations also spiking – piling pressure on consumers ahead of elections at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Rising fuel prices saw US consumers spend US$28.8 billion more on gasoline and related products in April over the same month a year ago, the data showed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON: The US economy expanded less than initially estimated in the first quarter, government data showed on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,1095,60,115],"class_list":["post-471870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-inflation","tag-ireland","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}