ABJ - August 9 - Real gross domestic product (GDP) – the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States – increased at an annual rate of 1.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2012, according to the advance estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased two per cent.

The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, non-residential fixed investment, private inventory investment, and residential fixed investment, which was partly offset by negative contributions from state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The deceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in PCE, an acceleration in imports, and decelerations in residential fixed investment and in non-residential fixed investment that were partly offset by an upturn in private inventory investment, a smaller decrease in federal government spending, and an acceleration in exports.

Real personal consumption expenditures increased 1.5 per cent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 per cent in the first. Meanwhile, durable goods decreased one per cent, in contrast to an increase of 11.5 per cent.