Business situation

The general picture of the US economy in the second quarter of 2001 that is indicated by the final estimates of the national income and product accounts is changed little from that shown by the preliminary estimates. The final estimates reflect the incorporation of revised and newly available source data. According to the final estimates, the pace of economic growth continued to slow in the second quarter. Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 0.3 percent, the weakest showing since the first quarter of 1993, when GDP decreased 0.1 percent. Over the past four quarters, real GDP has increased only 1.2 percent. In contrast, the average rate of growth from the second quarter of 1991 (the beginning of the current expansion) through the second quarter of 2000 was 3.6 percent.