US economic growth up sharply

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 26 Oktober 2012 | 20.24

26 October 2012 Last updated at 09:08 ET

The US economy grew in the three months to September, official figures showed.

The world's largest economy expanded at an annualised rate of 2% in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said, more than had been expected.

The US has now been growing for more than three years, since June 2009.

The figures are the one of the last pieces of important economic data before the US presidential election between Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney on 6 November.

With more than 20 million Americans unemployed and a huge public deficit, the economy has become one of the central issues of the campaign.

The economy grew by 1.3% in the previous quarter.

The Commerce Department said that biggest increases came from personal consumption and government spending. Federal government expenditures and gross investment increased 9.6% compared with the previous quarter, it said.

Economic fight

Mr Romney has repeatedly challenged President Obama's record, saying ''we have not made the progress we need to make''.

"If the president were re-elected, we'd go to almost $20 trillion of national debt. This puts us on a road to Greece," Mr Romney said during the second presidential debate.

Mr Obama replied that his opponent did not have a five-point plan to fix the economy, but ''a one-point plan''.

Last month, the US unemployment rate fell to 7.8%, down from 8.1%, its lowest since January 2009 when Mr Obama's term in office began.

To help get the US economy back on track, the US Federal Reserve in September restarted its policy of pumping money into the economy via quantitative easing. The Fed pledged to buy $40bn (£25bn) of mortgage debt a month, with the aim of reducing long-term borrowing costs for firms and households.

The US states its growth in annualised terms, meaning that its quarterly growth rate is extrapolated as if it was growing at that pace for the whole year.

Recent housing data has also shown some encouraging signs of recovery, analysts say.

Sales of existing homes and housing construction have picked up and the main home price index has risen consecutively for three months.

House prices have rebounded in some areas, while mortgage rates are expected to stay at record lows because of low interest rates.

The Fed has vowed to keep rates at the current levels of close to zero until 2015.


Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

US economic growth up sharply

Dengan url

http://ukberbaginfo.blogspot.com/2012/10/us-economic-growth-up-sharply.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

US economic growth up sharply

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

US economic growth up sharply

sebagai sumbernya

0 komentar:

Posting Komentar

techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger