Will The Economy’s Hot Streak Continue? What To Expect From Thursday’s GDP Report [Video]

The U.S. economy has defied expectations that it would slow down under the weight of high interest rates, and Thursday’s government report on gross domestic product will show whether it’s continuing to defy gravity.

The real GDP—an inflation-adjusted measure of the country’s economic output compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis—is expected to have grown at an annual rate of 2.2% in the first quarter, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. That would be a slowdown from the 3.4% growth rate in the fourth quarter and below the 2.4% average annual rate in the 10 years leading up to the pandemic. 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDP Now tracker, which projects the growth rate based on data as it comes in, predicts a 2.9% pace. 

In recent months, economists have anticipated the economy would slow down, only for it to keep roaring ahead, powered by devil-may-care spending by consumers. Although the Federal …