WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. economic growth slowed to 1.6% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday, two-thirds the rate at which the same department had initially projected for the April-to-June period as imports surged.
The figures more broadly paint a picture of the $14.58 trillion U.S. economy led by business investment, one that data on more recent activity suggest is struggling to grow.
Gross domestic product, or the inflation-adjusted, seasonally adjusted value of all goods and services produced in the U.S, slowed from the 3.7% annualized pace in the first quarter, the government agency said.
Final sales to domestic purchasers -- which include consumers, businesses and the government -- rose 4.3%.
The sharply downward GDP revision from the 2.4% growth initially pegged was largely expected after the release of June inventories and imports reports, which were not available for the first estimate released on July 30. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected an even worse figure showing 1.3% growth in the second quarter -- Wall Street appears to have been caught off-guard by an upward revision to electricity and natural gas usage figures, which led to an increase in real personal consumption to 2% from the 1.6% initially projected.
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The quarter was marked by a big jump in business spending as companies replenished equipment they hadn't replaced during the recession, with business fixed investment rising 17.6%. The weakness in July durable-goods orders, however, has raised concerns that business investment won't be as strong in the third quarter.
Contributing to the slowdown from the first quarter was the country's trade ledger: exports rose 9.1%, but imports grew a startling 32.4%, the biggest jump since the first quarter of 1984. Imports took away 4.45 percentage points from GDP in the second quarter.
The import surge came as American consumers loaded up on foreign goods like pharmaceuticals, televisions and furniture -- the monthly change in the value of consumer good imports in May and June were the second- and third-largest increases since the series began in December 1993, according to Michelle Girard, senior economist at RBS Securities.
In some respects, the import surge shows the U.S. consumer wasn't completely absent in the second quarter. The increased value of the U.S. dollar in the second quarter on worries over the future of the euro zone may have contributed to Americans' growing preference for foreign goods during the time period.
That said, economists aren't expecting much from the U.S. consumer in the second half. Excluding gasoline and car sales, retail sales fell 0.1% in July. Worryingly high unemployment, tight credit and a moribund housing market is holding back the consumer, as is an increasing propensity to save, as the savings rate climbed to 6.1% in the second quarter from 5.5% in the first quarter.
Ellen Beeson Zentner, senior U.S. macroeconomist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, suggested in a research note prior to the GDP report that the low inflation -- the core PCE price index grew 1.1% in the second quarter -- may be depressing spending.
'The current low-level inflation environment, while helping households cope with little or no wage growth, may itself be providing a disincentive to spend," she said.
"The economy is experiencing a broad disinflationary trend, flirting with possible deflation, which provides no incentive to take advantage of today's prices because tomorrows may be lower."
Inventories didn't accumulate as quickly as the Commerce Department first estimated -- contributing 0.6 percentage points to growth, vs. the 1.1 percentage point initial contribution in the second quarter.
Profitability improves
The Commerce Department released its first set of data on profitability in the second quarter, showing after-tax profits up 25.5%, or a 39.2% rise before tax.
Publicly traded companies have already reported a banner second quarter, as earnings per share growth of the 489 S&P 500 components that have reported results climbed 41%, according to FactSet Research data.
The domestic profits of financial corporations fell by $0.4 billion, while the domestic profits of nonfinancial companies climbed $67.9 billion. While higher than the same period of last year, domestic profits of financial corporations grew $5.2 billion in the first quarter and those of nonfinancial corporations rose $117.2 billion in the first quarter.
Adding to a picture of flush corporate balance sheets, cash flows climbed 12.7% compared to the same period last year, the agency said.
Of late, companies have been deploying their cash to buy other firms, with Dell and Hewlett-Packard vying to buy 3Par and BHP Billiton launching a hostile bid for Potash.
Steve Goldstein is MarketWatch's Washington bureau chief.