US economy performs slightly better than expected

The US economy performed a little bit better in the first three months of the year than first thought, growing at an annual rate of 1.9%. But even with the improvement, the pace of economic growth was still below normal.

The latest reading on gross domestic product for the quarter shows the economy expanding slightly faster than the 1.6% growth rate estimated a month ago, the Commerce Department reported today. The GDP is the broadest measure of the economy’s health.

The new GDP estimate, based on more complete data, was right on target with economists’ expectations. GDP measures the total value of goods and services produced within the United States.

Still, the US was feeling the strains of war jitters and bad weather in the first quarter, factors that weighed on an already lumbering economy, economists say. In the last three months of 2002, economic growth clocked in at a mediocre annual rate of 1.4%.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan predicted that economic growth in the current April-June quarter “is going to be quite soft.”

Private economists agree. They don’t think the economy will do much better than the first quarter.