U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.6 percent annual rate in 2014's fourth quarter, according to the Commerce Department.
The news comes after the U.S. economy posted its strongest growth in more than a decade, a 5 percent GDP reading in the third quarter of 2014. It also comes two days after the Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy was expanding at a "solid pace."
Economists had estimated that America's economy grew by three percent during the last three months of 2014. Reuters reports that lower gasoline prices heightened fourth-quarter consumer spending.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"The consumer did the heavy lifting, and I don't think there is any reason to expect that to change in the first half of this year because of the enormous tailwind from lower gasoline prices," Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania, told Reuters.
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutinySpeed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
