WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. economic growth in the third quarter expanded at an annual rate of 2.1 percent, the U.S. Commerce Department said Friday, amid concerns of a weak performance in the fourth quarter.
The latest figure is unrevised from its previous estimate, but it's higher than the first estimate of 1.9 percent, according to the data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
"With the third estimate for the third quarter, upward revisions to personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and nonresidential fixed investment were offset by a downward revision to private inventory investment," the bureau said.
The 2.1 percent growth rate in the third quarter, which is slightly up from the 2 percent in the second quarter, marks a sharp deceleration from the 3.1 percent in the first quarter.
Robert Kaplan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said last month that he expected U.S. economic growth to be "weak" in the fourth quarter as businesses cut inventories due to trade uncertainty.
"One of the reasons the fourth quarter is going to be weak, we believe, is probably a significant inventory adjustment, which might be as much as half a percent or more of GDP (gross domestic product) growth," said the senior Fed official.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has already lowered interest rates three times since July, amid growing risks and uncertainties stemming from trade tensions, weakness in global growth and muted inflation pressures.
These policy adjustments put the current federal funds rate target range at 1.5 to 1.75 percent. Last week, the central bank left interest rates unchanged and signaled that it would keep rates on hold through 2020.
