Far too early to call time on dollar’s three-year recovery
US president Trump has inherited a very strong economy. Data shows that real final domestic sales — GDP minus net trade and changes in inventories — which offers the best picture of the domestic economy, rose by 2.5% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year. It grew by 2.1% in the third quarter and 2.4% in quarter two. Thus, the underlying growth rate in the US has been very stable at a solid 2%-2.5% in recent quarters.
Consumer spending continued to increase at a strong pace in quarter four, adding 1.7 percentage points to GDP. Private investment made a third consecutive positive contribution. Inventories also continued to rebound following a period of contraction.
