The United States' first quarter real gross domestic product grew by 0.8 percent, tracking 1.2 percent growth, along with a 1.9 percent growth in consumer spending. The Quarterly Services Survey for Q1 provided detailed revenue and expense estimates for US service-providing firms.
Data released by the QSS Thursday showed services consumption was estimated to have grown 2.6 percent q/q saar. This morning’s data point to better-than-estimated spending at physician offices and hospitals, which was offset partially by less spending on other services.
“On net, we expect the Bureau of Economic Analysis to revise up its estimate of Q1 real consumption growth by about 0.2pp, to 2.1 percent in the third estimate of Q1 GDP,” Barclays said in a research report.
Elsewhere, computer and software firms have reported healthier revenue growth than the BEA had assumed for Q1. This suggests that intellectual property investment growth will be revised up, perhaps as high as 3.0 percent from an initial -0.1 percent.
“Together, these expected revisions boosted our Q1 GDP tracking estimate two-tenths, to 1.2 percent,” Barclays mentioned in a comment.
However, better household and business spending on services in Q1 are expected to help upgrade the overall picture of sluggish recent output growth.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com