US economy expands 3.2% in December quarter

The US economy grew 3.2 per cent in the last three months of 2010, spurred by increased consumer spending.

However, the quarterly expansion was slightly lower than the expected growth of around 3.5 per cent.

"Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labour and property located in the US -- increased at an annual rate of 3.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010," US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said today.

The fourth-quarter growth, much higher than 2.6 per cent expansion witnessed in the previous three months, also indicates overall improvement in the economic situation.

Going by the latest data, real personal consumption expenditures jumped 4.4 per cent in the fourth quarter as compared to just 2.4 per cent increase in the 2010 September quarter.

"The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, and nonresidential fixed investment...," BEA said in a statement.

In terms of current-dollar GDP, the American economy was worth about $14.9 trillion in the three months ended December 2010.

Ravaged by the financial meltdown in 2008-09, the world's largest economy saw infusion of stimulus hundreds of billions of dollars.