The U.S. economy grew at a much better than expected pace in the second quarter, powered by a turnaround in the trade balance and renewed consumer strength, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
Gross domestic product, a sum of goods and services activity across the sprawling U.S. economy, jumped 3% for the April-through-June period, according to figures adjusted for seasonality and inflation.
That topped the Dow Jones estimate for 2.3% and helped reverse a decline of 0.5% for the first quarter that came largely due to a huge drop in imports, which subtract from the total, as well as a weak consumer spending amid tariff concerns.
The period reported Wednesday includes President Donald Trump’s April 2 “liberation day” tariff announcement. Imports had jumped in the first quarters as companies sought to get ahead of the announcement.
Over the past three months, Trump has been engaged in multiple rounds of saber rattling and often intense negotiations with U.S. trading partners that have jangled nerves but nonetheless coincided with a subdued but solid pace of economic growth.
The talks have largely resulted in tariffs well above where they were at the beginning of the year but not as severe as initially proposed.
Consumer spending rose 1.4% in the second quarter, better than the 0.5% in the prior period. While exports declined 1.8% during the period, imports fell 30.3%, reversing a 37.9% surge in Q1.
The GDP tally showed strength across key areas of the economy, as well as evidence that inflation is ebbing though eradicated.
The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s key inflation metric, showed a gain of 2.1% for the quarter, just above the central bank’s 2% target. Core PCE inflation, which the Fed considers a better gauge for longer-run trends as it excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased 2.5%. The respective numbers for the first quarter were 3.7% and 3.5%.
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