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Solid growth brightens US outlook for ’14
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Employees at Sheffield Platers Inc. work on the factory floor in San Diego. A government report released Thursday showed consumers fueled solid economic growth in the final quarter of 2013.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Consumers will spend more. Government will cut less. Businesses will invest more. And more companies will hire.
Add it all up, and you can see why expectations are rising that 2014 will be the best year for the U.S. economy since the recession ended 41/2 years ago. That’s why the Federal Reserve is pressing ahead with a plan to scale back its economic stimulus.
The optimists got a boost Thursday from a government report that showed consumers fueled solid economic growth in the final quarter of 2013. The report lifted hopes that the economy will be able to withstand turmoil in emerging economies, a pullback in the Fed’s stimulus and mounting risks to the U.S. stock market over the next 12 months.
Americans struggling with long-term unemployment and stagnant pay might not get relief anytime soon. And areas such as manufacturing, construction and home sales remain far from full health. Still, the outlook for the economy as a whole brightened after the government said growth reached a 3.2 percent annual rate last quarter on the strength of the strongest consumer spending in three years.
“The economy showed real signs of momentum at the end of 2013,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. “We are better positioned for decent growth for 2014 than we were a year ago.”
Consumer spending surged in the October-December quarter at an annual rate of 3.3 percent — the best pace since 2010 and a big jump from the 2 percent growth rate of the previous quarter. Consumer spending is particularly important because it accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.
For 2013 as a whole, the economy grew a tepid 1.9 percent, weaker than the 2.8 percent increase in 2012, the Commerce Department said Thursday.