The US economy grew more slowly than originally thought in the third quarter as businesses drew down their inventories faster than expected.
Gross domestic product growth was revised down to an annual rate of 2 per cent in the third quarter from an earlier estimate of 2.5 per cent, according to the commerce department. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected growth to remain at the 2.5 per cent pace. But growth was still the strongest quarterly increase this year, following a 1.3 per cent expansion in the second quarter.
A fall in inventories – the first in almost two years – dragged on the economy during the July to September period, with a $8.5bn decrease shaving 1.55 percentage points from growth, more than the previous estimate of 1.1 percentage points.