Economy grew 2.5 pct. in Third Quarter (VIDEO)
Driven by Consumer and Business Rebound
The modest economic growth announced yesterday by the has been assuaging fears that a double-dip recession is in the offing. The question now is: can the strength shown in the numbers released yesterday be sustained?
Economy grew 2.5 pct. in Third QuarterA summer season growth does not a recovery make, however, but strong business investment and consumer confidence have expanded the economy at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the July-September quarter.
Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief after almost a year of anemic expansion, posting an accross the board increase on not only the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ, but also the entire S&P 500 yesterday, posting the largest expansion since 1974.
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The global economy picked up as well on heels of news of the bailout of Greece by the European community.
The expansion, the strongest quarterly growth in a year, came as a relief after anemic growth in the first half of the year and weeks of wild stock market shifts.
Still, the economy must grow at nearly double this past third-quarter rate to lower high unemployment, which has been near 9 percent for the more than two years. Although consumer spending was triple the level of the second quarter, Americans earned less.
