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

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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.