Economy grew 2.5 pct. in Third Quarter (VIDEO)
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.
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.
