The U.S. economy grew 2.3 percent in the second quarter

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

published 30 July 2015

The Commerce Department revealed Thursday that the U.S. economy picked up speed in its second quarter growth and, thanks to a revision of the first quarter GDP growth, was found to have grown in the year's first quarter. Previously, first quarter GDP was shown to have shrunk at a 0.2 percent rate, but revisions reveal that it actually grew at a 0.6 percent rate.

Although second quarter growth rates fell slightly below economists' expectations of a 2.6 percent growth rate, these incremental gains bolster the Federal Reserve's notion that the U.S. economy is, indeed, steadily on the rise.