{"id":66419,"date":"2026-02-20T18:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/the-latest-gdp-data-isnt-as-bad-as-it-looks-heres-what-to-know\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T18:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:28:08","slug":"the-latest-gdp-data-isnt-as-bad-as-it-looks-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/the-latest-gdp-data-isnt-as-bad-as-it-looks-heres-what-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"The latest GDP data isn&#8217;t as bad as it looks. Here&#8217;s what to know."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>After humming along at a robust pace for much of 2025, the economy hit a wall in the fourth quarter, with a six-week government shutdown and slowdown in consumer spending stunting growth at the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Gross domestic product \u2014 which measures the nation&#8217;s output of goods and services \u2014 grew at a meager 1.4% annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. That came in well under economists&#8217; forecasts of roughly 2% growth and is down sharply from the previous three months, when the economy <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/gdp-report-economy-growth-third-quarter-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">expanded at blistinerg 4.3%<\/a><\/span> pace.<\/p>\n<p>Yet while the GDP number was weaker than expected, analysts say the economy remains on firm ground and is likely to accelerate in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today&#8217;s headline number is certainly disappointing,&#8221; eToro U.S. investment analyst Bret Kenwell told CBS News. &#8220;When you peel back the layers a little bit, it&#8217;s not quite as bad as it appears on the surface.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The latest GDP data, which was delayed due to the recent government shutdown, was the first snapshot of fourth-quarter economic growth. The Commerce Department will deliver two more readings for the quarter in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>The government also released the Personal Consumption Expenditures, or PCE, report on Friday, the Federal Reserve&#8217;s preferred measure of inflation. Headline PCE grew at an annual rate of 2.9% in December, a sign that inflation remains sticky.<\/p>\n<p>Here are other key takeaways from Friday&#8217;s GDP report.<\/p>\n<h2>Government shutdown tipped the scales<\/h2>\n<p>The main reason the economy slumped in the final three months of 2025, according to economists: the 43-day\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/live-updates\/government-shutdown-latest-house-vote-senate-deal-trump\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">government shutdown<\/a><\/span>\u00a0last year,\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/2025-government-shutdown-by-numbers\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">during which<\/a><\/span> hundreds of thousands of federal workers were furloughed and federal funding for a range of programs\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/food-stamps-snap-benefits-november-2025-government-shutdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">came to a halt<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Gregory Daco, chief economist at consulting firm EY-Parthenon, in an email called the shutdown a &#8220;self-inflicted black eye.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The disappointing end to the year largely reflected a self-inflicted drag from the longest government shutdown in U.S. history,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The lapse in federal spending lasted for nearly half of the fourth quarter, stretching from October to early November. According to Friday&#8217;s GDP report, the shutdown reduced fourth-quarter growth by about 1 percentage point, largely due to a reduction in federal government services. The shutdown also contributed to a steep drop in government spending in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<h2>Consumers pulled back on spending<\/h2>\n<p>A slowdown in consumer spending also modestly weighed on economic activity last quarter. Spending rose by 2.4% in the final three months of the year, down from 2.9% in the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Spending didn&#8217;t fall off a cliff, but it certainly slowed and decelerated from the pace we had earlier this year,&#8221; Kenwell said.<\/p>\n<p>Consumer spending is the nation&#8217;s main engine of growth, accounting for around two-thirds of economic activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Economists expect a rebound\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>Friday&#8217;s GDP print comes as other sectors of the economy display strength. Job growth came in higher than expected last month, with employers <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/jobs-report-january-2026-economy-hiring-layoffs-bls\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">adding 130,000<\/a><\/span> positions. <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/cpi-report-today-inflation-january-2026-tariffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Inflation<\/a><\/span> is also cooling.<\/p>\n<p>With the 2025 government shutdown in the rearview mirror, analysts expect the economy to rebound this year. Investment advisory firm Capital Economics expects the economy to grow at a 3% annual rate in the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, also thinks the economy will pick up because of softening tariff pressures and ongoing tax cuts, which he said will boost spending.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We expect a sharp rebound in the coming months, driven by a larger tax refund season,&#8221; he said in a research note.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<p class=\"content__meta--editors\">\n      Edited by<\/p>\n<p>                                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/team\/alain-sherter\/\" class=\"byline__author__link\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Alain  Sherter<\/a>\n                      <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n        <\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/gdp-economic-growth-gdp-fourth-quarter\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After humming along at a robust pace for much of 2025, the economy hit a wall in the fourth quarter,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[3800,730,7926,957],"class_list":["post-66419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us","tag-consumer-news","tag-economy","tag-gross-domestic-product","tag-inflation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The latest GDP data isn&#039;t as bad as it looks. 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