Real gross domestic product - the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States - increased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the third quarter of 2005, according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
In the second quarter, real GDP increased 3.3 percent. The Bureau emphasized that the third-quarter "advance" estimates are based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 3).
The thirdquarter "preliminary" estimates, based on more comprehensive data, will be released on November 30,
2005.
The major contributors to the increase in real GDP in the third quarter were personal consumption expenditures (PCE), equipment and software, federal government spending, and residential fixed investment.
The contributions of these components were partly offset by a negative contribution from private inventory investment.
The acceleration in real GDP growth in the third quarter primarily reflected a smaller decrease in private inventory investment and accelerations in PCE and in federal government spending that were partly offset by decelerations in exports, in residential fixed investment, and in state and local
government spending.
Final sales of computers contributed 0.11 percentage point to the third-quarter growth in real GDP after contributing 0.32 percentage point to the second-quarter growth. Motor vehicle output contributed 0.48 percentage point to the third-quarter growth in real GDP after subtracting 0.01 percentage point
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