Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2018, according to the “second” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The growth rate was unrevised from the “advance” estimate released in October. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 4.2 percent.
GDP highlights
The increase in real GDP reflected increases in consumer spending, inventory investment, government spending, and business investment. Notable
offsets were decreases in exports and housing investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.
The increase in consumer spending reflected increases in spending on both goods (mainly in prescription drugs and in clothing and footwear) and services. The increase in inventory investment primarily reflected increases in wholesale and in manufacturing inventories.
The decrease in exports reflected a decrease in goods that was partly offset by an increase in services.
Updates to GDP
The unrevised estimate of GDP growth mainly reflected upward revisions to business investment and inventory investment that were offset by downward revisions to consumer spending and government spending. For more information see the technical note.
Corporate profits
Corporate profits increased 3.4 percent at a quarterly rate in the third quarter of 2018 after increasing 3.0 percent in the second.
- Profits of domestic nonfinancial corporations increased 5.1 percent after increasing 4.2 percent.
- Profits of domestic financial corporations decreased 1.7 percent after increasing 3.7 percent.
- Profits from the rest of the world increased 3.7 percent after decreasing 0.9 percent.
Corporate profits increased 10.3 percent from the third quarter of 2017.
For more information, read the full report.