“Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 5.2 percent in the third quarter of 2023, according to the ‘second’ estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.1 percent. The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the ‘advance’ estimate issued last month.”

“In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 4.9 percent. The update primarily reflected upward revisions to nonresidential fixed investment and state and local government spending that were partly offset by a downward revision to consumer spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, were revised down. The increase in real GDP reflected increases in consumer spending, private inventory investment, exports, state and local government spending, federal government spending, residential fixed investment, and nonresidential fixed investment.”

“Compared to the second quarter, the acceleration in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected accelerations in consumer spending and private inventory investment and an upturn in exports that were partly offset by a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment. Imports turned up,” says the US Bureau of Economic Analysis in a statement that doesn’t mean anything because it just feels like the GDP is down and the American economy is worse than Argentina and Zimbabwe’s combined.