As the first three months of 2023 come to a close, the GDP for the first quarter has just been released as a economic growth of 2.6%. This was a little bit slower than the predicted rate of growth being 2.7%. In addition to slowing consumer spending, downturns in exports, non-residential fixed investment, and state local government spending also led in to the step back in growth. When looking back at 2022 though, this year was known as a year of transition as people finally started returning to their normal lives of going out, shopping, traveling, and spending, and the economy continued to recover vastly from the pandemic. Imbalances in trade and inventories had an outsized effect on the GDP data in the earlier parts of the year, while the second-half growth was fueled by consumer spending. In 2022, everything almost seemed new again as people finally were able to get back to their lives again so everyone wanted to spend more and was more excited vs in 2023 now everything is getting back to just feeling normal again, which explains the only 2.6% GDP economic growth.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/30/economy/us-gdp-4q-final
Great insights. It would be interesting to look at what people are spending money on, if it is in store/online, and if they are using cash or card more frequently.
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