Trump Economy Beats Expectations

Unexpected high-growth in US should make critics think twice

Workers at the Hollywood Bed Frame Company attend an event to mark the company's upcoming expansion, which will double the manufacturer's workforce, adding 100 new local jobs at the company's factory in Commerce, Calif., on April 14, 2017. Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. GDP growth surged to 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019, beating the experts’ estimates of a 2.3 percent. It’s the best first quarter performance since 2015, despite the 35-day shutdown of the U.S. government, the longest in American history. The first 25 days of the year the federal government was literally out of business, and yet by comparison, U.S. economic growth was just 2 percent in the first quarter of 2018.

What does the economy’s stellar first quarter performance of 2019 tell us about consumer sentiment, wages, tariffs on Chinese imports, and an economic slowdown in China and Europe? Quite a lot, actually.

Consumer Spending Leads the Way

Leading the charge was consumer spending. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the rising GDP “reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures private inventory investment, exports, state and local government spending, and nonresidential fixed investment.”