The Federal Reserve should be happy with the top-line numbers in Thursday’s fourth-quarter GDP report, which confirmed the U.S. economic system grew by a stable 2.9% whereas its most popular value index slowed to three.2%. However drill down, and the economic system appears to be shedding momentum.
Perhaps one of the best information from the report is that shopper spending continued to extend at a gradual 2.1% and contributed about half of the GDP progress. It seems that rising rates of interest haven’t but precipitated shoppers to drag again, although the December retail gross sales report confirmed a pointy drop in spending and will augur a slowdown.
