U.S. economic growth in 2018 missed the Trump administration's 3per cent target by any measure, which could renew criticism of the White House's US$1.
The Commerce Department said on Friday that gross domestic product increased at a 2.9per cent rate last year, confirming an estimate which was published in March. The department's annual revisions to GDP data also showed the economy growing 2.5per cent in the 12 months through the fourth quarter of 2018, down from the previously reported 3.0per cent.
Trump likes to showcase the economy as one of the biggest achievements of his first term in office, declaring last July that his administration had"accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions." On the campaign trail, Trump boasted he could boost annual GDP growth to 4per cent.The downgrade to the 2018 year-on-year measure to below 3per cent may well irk a commander-in-chief who has been quick to blame the U.S.
The updated Commerce Department data also showed growth in the second and third quarters of last year was not as robust as previously estimated, and the economy grew much more slowly in the fourth quarter than had been reported in March.Still, the economy's performance in 2018 was an acceleration from the 2.4per cent growth notched in 2017. It matched the performance in 2015 during the Obama administration. The economy grew 2.8per cent in the 12 months through the fourth quarter of 2017.
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