U.S. Economy Grew Faster than Expected in Q4 of 2023

3.3%

“The economy grew much faster than expected in the final three months of 2023, as the U.S. easily skirted a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable,” CNBC reports. “Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced, increased at a 3.3% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data adjusted seasonally and for inflation.”

Morgan Stanley Credits ‘Bidenomics’ for GDP Growth

1.9%

Morgan Stanley is crediting President Biden’s economic policies with driving an unexpected surge in the U.S. economy that is so significant that the bank was forced to make a “sizable upward revision” to its estimates for U.S. gross domestic product, CNBC reports. As a result of these unexpected swells, Morgan Stanley now projects 1.9% GDP growth for the first half of this year. That’s nearly four times higher than the bank’s previous forecast of 0.5%.

U.S. Economic Growth Declined

1.4%

“Gross domestic product unexpectedly declined 1.4% in the first quarter, marking an abrupt reversal for an economy coming off its best performance since 1984,” CNBC reports. “The negative growth rate missed even the subdued Dow Jones estimate of a 1% gain for the quarter.” “Rising omicron infections to start the year hampered activity across the board, while inflation surging at a level not seen since the early 1980s and the Russia invasion of Ukraine also contributed to the economic stasis.”

U.S. Economy Grew by Just 3.5% in Trump’s Last Year

3.5%

“The U.S. economy shrank by 3.5 percent last year as the novel coronavirus upended American business and households, making 2020 the worst year for U.S. economic growth since the depths of the Great Recession,” the Washington Post reports. “This is the last GDP report from former president Donald Trump’s tenure. Until the pandemic, Trump was on track for an economic record that put him near the middle of the pack among recent presidents. But the covid-19 crisis has ensured that he is likely to have overseen the slowest economic growth of any president in the period since the Second World War.”