US REVISES DOWN LAST QUARTER'S ECONOMIC GROWTH TO 2.7% RATE

The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.7% annual rate from October through December, a solid showing despite rising interest rates and elevated inflation, the government said Thursday in a downgrade from its initial estimate.

The government had previously estimated that the economy grew at a 2.9% annual rate last quarter.

The Commerce Department’s revised estimate of the fourth quarter’s gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — marked a deceleration from the 3.2% growth rate from July through September.

Thursday’s report revised down the government’s estimate of consumer spending growth in the October-December quarter, from a 2.1% rate to 1.4%. That was the weakest such showing since the first quarter of last year.

Business spending also slowed in the fourth quarter, suggesting that the economy lost momentum at the end of 2022.

More recent data, though, shows that the economy has since rebounded. Consumers boosted retail sales in January by the most in nearly two years, and employers added a surprisingly outsize number of jobs. The unemployment rate reached 3.4%, the lowest level since 1969.