U.S First Quarter GDP Growth Weakest In Four Years
27 April 2007
27.04.07
Weaker exports and a steady slide in spending on home building helped to slow the US economic growth to its slowest level in four years during the first quarter of 2007. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) which measures total goods and services output within the US increased at only 1.3% in the three months from January through to March. This was considerably below forecasts of 1.8% and a sharp drop from the 2.5% seen in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Growth has been slowing in the US as the impact of the softer housing sector data and rising defaults in the subprime sector have been causing builders to scale back until they see the number of unsold homes decrease.
The data caused the USD to fall to day lows against most majors and pushed EURUSD to a lifetime high of 1.3682
(Research Desk - Ben Parkinson)