Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — exploded at an annual rate of 4.0 percent in the second quarter of 2014, according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) on July 30th. This growth surge is in comparison to the first quarter decline of 2.1 percent in real GDP.
The acceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, private inventory investment, exports, nonresidential fixed investment, state and local government spending, and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased, according to the BEA.