Defying naysayers, US economy sprinting ahead

The latest numbers confirm what Americans can see all around them: The Trump economic surge is still in full swing and beating expectations.

Following a delay in reporting caused by the longest government shutdown in the country’s history, we finally have the initial Commerce Department data for economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Not only were there no signs of a coming recession that some had warned about, but also actual gross domestic product growth of 2.6 percent in the quarter exceeded the 2.3 percent consensus estimate of economists polled by Reuters.

Those initial Commerce numbers released last week provide the first comprehensive look at the economy’s performance for the full calendar year 2018, revealing that, by at least one measure, the United States just hit the strong 3 percent growth rate that President Donald Trump had promised on the campaign trail.

In fact, as the Trump administration had forecast, GDP grew by an impressive 3.1 percent between fourth quarter 2017 and fourth quarter 2018. That growth was significantly higher than the Federal Reserve’s December 2017 median projection of 2.5 percent growth for 2018.