Consumer spending drives stronger US growth

The rate of growth nearly doubled from the second quarter, as Americans spent more on everything from computers to services.

The report will ease fears that the United States is headed for another recession, even if the Commerce Department\'s estimate is subject to revision.

Describing the report as "encouraging," Peter Newland of Barclays Capital noted "the bulk of the rebound... was centered in personal consumption, which was up 2.4 percent."

The overall rate of growth for the quarter was slightly above economists\' predictions of 2.3 percent.

But there are still concerns that this clip of growth is not enough to substantially bring down painfully high unemployment rates.

"While a double-dip recession does not seem to be in the cards, this does not by a long shot mean that the economy is healthy," said Josh Bivens, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

"This sluggish growth is the root cause of the stubbornly high unemployment rate we\'ve seen over that time."

But the details of the report were encouraging.

"The increase in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, nonresidential fixed investment, exports and federal government spending," the Commerce Department said.

At the same time, spending cuts at the state and local government level slowed as federal government spending increased at a 2.0 percent annual rate, on strong non-defense spending.

Some economists said the figure could be revised upward, because monthly inventory figures appear to have been much stronger than the quarterly data showed.

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