{"id":719168,"date":"2026-07-30T14:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719168\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:07:13","slug":"us-economic-growth-slows-sharply-in-second-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719168\/","title":{"rendered":"US economic growth slows sharply in second quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growth in the US slowed unexpectedly in the three months to June, according to official figures.<\/p>\n

The Commerce Department said the US economy grew at an annual rate of 1.5% in the second quarter, down from 2.1% seen in the first three months of the year.<\/p>\n

It comes as the world’s largest economy continues to weather the financial impact of the war with Iran and US businesses navigate tariffs.<\/p>\n

The growth figure was lower than analysts had estimated, with the downturn due to lower government spending, investment and exports. However, the economy received a boost from an increase in consumer spending.<\/p>\n

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity in the US, grew at a rate of 3.2% last quarter after slowing to 0.5% earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Despite prices rising at 3.5% in the year to June, Americans continued to spend on motor vehicles – particularly light-duty trucks – furniture and prescription drugs, according to surveys. <\/p>\n

The latest growth figures come after the Federal Reserve decided to hold interest rates for a fifth time in a row in Wednesday, with new chairman Kevin Warsh warning there was no “magic wand” to tackle rising prices.<\/a><\/p>\n

Prices in the US have been rising at a rate above the Fed’s 2% target for more than five years, but the Commerce Department said consumer spending remained resilient. <\/p>\n

The Fed said US economic activity was expanding at a “solid pace despite uncertainty caused by the conflict in the Middle East”.<\/p>\n

The main economic concern from the conflict has been rising oil prices, which had surged again following recent escalations. <\/p>\n

Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, was about $90 a barrel on Thursday. Higher oil prices typically lead to increased prices at the pumps, with average gasoline prices now back above $4 a gallon.<\/p>\n

But Bradley Saunders, North America economist for Capital Economics, said while growth had slowed in recent months, the figure “seriously undersells a healthy economy”.<\/p>\n

He said the statistics showed households had “shrugged off” the hit to budgets from higher fuel prices. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growth in the US slowed unexpectedly in the three months to June, according to official figures. The Commerce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-719168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}