Real gross domestic product (GDP) – the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S. – increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012 (from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to the second estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the fourth quarter of 2011, real GDP increased 3.0 percent.

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In the advance estimate for the first quarter, the increase was 2.2 percent.

The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, residential fixed investment, private inventory investment, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from

federal government spending and state and local government spending.  Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in private inventory investment, an acceleration in imports, and a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by accelerations in exports and in PCE.

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