The labor market is also stable. For example, last year relatively few people were laid off and wages rose. As a result of this recent development, American consumers have had to spend more.

For a long time, recession in the US was expected. There are concerns over this as the US central bank’s umbrella body, the Federal Reserve, is aggressively raising interest rates to tackle high inflation. As a result, less money is available in the economy. Nevertheless, the economy once again performed better than expected.

Same speed

The central bank will hold another meeting next week. The US Federal Reserve is expected to leave interest rates unchanged.

US government figures are a provisional estimate, but show an acceleration compared to 2022 when the economy grew by 1.9 percent.

In the fourth quarter, the world’s largest economy grew 3.3 percent compared to the previous quarter, where experts had expected 2 percent growth. This refers to the annual measurement system, in which the statistics office calculates growth as if it maintained the same pace throughout the year. The US economy also showed stronger-than-expected growth in the third quarter.