Real GDP Up 3.7% in Second Quarter

Washington, DC, August 27, 2015—Real gross domestic product—the value of the goods and services produced by the nation's economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production, adjusted for price changes—increased at an annual rate of 3.7% in the second quarter of 2015, according to the second estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. 

In the first quarter, real GDP increased 0.6%.

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 2.3%.  With the second estimate for the second quarter, nonresidential fixed investment and private inventory investment increased. With the advance estimate, both of these components were estimated to have slightly decreased.

The increase in real GDP in the second quarter reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, state and local government spending, nonresidential fixed investment, residential fixed investment, and private inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The acceleration in real GDP in the second quarter reflected an upturn in exports, an acceleration in PCE, a deceleration in imports, an upturn in state and local government spending, and an acceleration in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by decelerations in private inventory investment, in federal government spending, and in residential fixed investment.