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The US economy grew at an annualised rate of 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, a weaker than expected end to a year dominated by the resilience of American consumers.
Thursday’s GDP figure from the Bureau of Economic Analysis compared with the 2.6 per cent expected by economists polled by Bloomberg and 3.1 per cent in the third quarter.
It comes a day after the Federal Reserve held interest rates, with chair Jay Powell saying the strength of the economy meant the central bank did not need to be “in a hurry” to cut borrowing costs.
The IMF expects the US economy to continue to outpace peers in Europe, Canada and Japan this year. President Donald Trump’s pledge to cut taxes has raised expectations that US growth will remain robust.
US government bonds were steady following the data, with the two-year yield 0.02 percentage points lower at 4.21 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield was down 0.04 percentage points at 4.51 per cent.
US stock futures held on to their gains, with contracts tracking the S&P 500 up 0.3 per cent and those tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 up 0.6 per cent.
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