U.S. economic growth slows to 2.3 pct in first quarter

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.3 percent in the first quarter of the year, lower than the 2.9-percent growth rate in the previous quarter, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on Friday.

The deceleration of growth in the first quarter mainly reflected a slowdown in personal consumption expenditures, residential fixed investment, exports, and state and local government spending, the department said in a report.

Personal consumption expenditures, which account for more than two thirds of the overall economy, grew at an annual rate of 1.1 percent in the first quarter, down from 4 percent in the previous quarter.

It seems that Americans were reluctant to increase spending in the first quarter, despite the U.S. Congress passed a 1.5-trillion-U.S. dollar tax cut package by the end of last year.

The personal saving rate was 3.1 percent in the first quarter, compared with 2.6 percent in the previous quarter, according to the department.

Nonresidential fixed investment, a measure of corporate spending on structures and equipment, grew at 6.1 percent in the first quarter, down from 6.8 percent in the previous quarter.

Residential investment was also flat in the first three months of the year, possibly due to winter storms and higher short-term interest rates, according to analysts.

While the Trump administration has vowed to accelerate annual U.S. economic growth to over 3 percent, the Federal Reserve last month expected U.S. economy to expand at 2.7 percent for the whole year 2018. Enditem