Real GDP increased 3.2 percent after increasing 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter. Inventory investment and exports slowed, and residential investment turned down. Consumer spending picked up.
BEA is considering changes to better align its international accounts with updated guidelines from the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.
Personal income growth slowed in more than two-thirds of the 3,112 counties in the nation in 2008. These revised statistics reflect the 2009 comprehensive revisions of the national income and product accounts and the state personal income accounts.