Economy Shows Strongest Growth Since Mid-2010
New Commerce data suggests possibility of long-term GDP trend.
| Posted Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, at 10:02 AM ET
Photograph by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images.
Some good news: The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in more than a year and a half over the final quarter of 2011.
New data from the Commerce Department shows the the nation's GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.8 percent over the final three months of last year, up from 1.8 percent in the third quarter and 1.3 percent in the second. It was the highest rate of quarterly growth since the the spring of 2010.
For the year, however, the economy grew by 1. 7 percent, significantly slower than the 3-percent growth of the previous year. As the Wall Street Journal put it, "Now, the question is whether the momentum in the fourth quarter will simply be another blip in a recovery marked by fitful starts, or whether it marks a stronger phase of the recovery."
