WASHINGTON — Growth in the U.S. economy was sluggish again in the spring, dashing expectations for a robust rebound after a tough winter. Stronger consumer spending was offset by weakness in housing construction and a big slowdown in the pace that businesses restocked store shelves.
The Commerce Department said Friday that the gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the economy — grew at a 1.2 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter. That was far below the 2.6 percent GDP growth rate that economists had been forecasting.
The government also revised down its estimate of first-quarter growth to 0.8 percent from 1.1 percent. The economy has now grown at lackluster rates for three straight quarters.
Despite the worse-than-expected performance in the second quarter, analysts said they remained hopeful that the economy will rebound in the second half of this year as some of the headwinds start to abate. Analysts said that businesses will likely ramp up inventories in the coming months.
Still, the weakness in the first and second quarters prompted analysts to trim their forecasts for total growth in 2016.
Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, revised his GDP forecast for this year from 2 percent down to 1.5 percent, which would be the weakest showing since the economy contracted by 2.8 percent in 2009 as the country was struggling with a deep recession.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.