The US economy slowed sharply in the closing quarter of 2000, posting the weakest growth in 5 years as consumer confidence eroded, the US commerce department said today.
Gross domestic product, which measures the value of all goods and services produced in the US, advanced at a lacklustre 1.4 per cent annual rate during the fourth quarter of 2000, down from 2.2 per cent in the third quarter.
It was the weakest pace of GDP increase for any three-month period since a 0.8 per cent increase in the second quarter of 1995.
The fourth-quarter performance was weaker than predicted by Wall Street economists who had forecast a 1.9 per cent rate of quarterly GDP growth. The report came as US Federal Reserve policymakers gathered for the final round of a two-day meeting expected to result in announcement of a half-percentage-point cut in US interest rates.
The US economy began to slow in the second half of 2000, after a robust opening six months that helped give the country its strongest full-year growth in 16 years. GDP for all of 2000 increased by 5 per cent, well ahead of a 4.2 per cent gain in 1999, for the biggest annual gain since 7.3 per cent in 1984.
Reuters