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ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

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C H A P T E R 2<br />

<strong>THE</strong> YEAR IN REVIEW AND<br />

<strong>THE</strong> YEARS AHEAD<br />

The U.S. economy continued to grow in 2016, as the recovery extended<br />

into its seventh year with strong gains in employment and real wages,<br />

low inflation, and moderate output growth. Robust employment growth and<br />

moderate output growth imply low labor productivity growth, an important<br />

challenge in the years ahead. Strong employment gains along with rising real<br />

wages in 2016 were a continuation of the trends in 2015 that helped contribute<br />

to the fastest real median income growth on record and, in conjunction,<br />

a falling poverty rate.<br />

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.8<br />

percent during the first three quarters of 2016 (the latest data available as this<br />

Report goes to press), down slightly from the 1.9-percent growth during the<br />

four quarters of 2015.1 During the first three quarters of 2016, real consumer<br />

spending, which grew at an annual rate of 2.9 percent, exceeded real GDP<br />

growth as personal saving rates fell. Residential investment contributed<br />

positively to overall real GDP growth in the last quarter of 2015 and the<br />

first quarter of 2016, but subtracted from growth in the second and third<br />

quarters of 2016. The weakness in residential investment is surprising given<br />

the solid fundamentals: low mortgage interest rates, favorable demographic<br />

trends, rising real wages, and rising house prices. Business fixed investment<br />

contracted in the last quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, but has<br />

since returned to contributing positively, though weakly, to overall growth.<br />

Inventory investment—one of the most volatile components of GDP—subtracted<br />

from GDP during the five quarters prior to 2016:Q3, in particular in<br />

2016:Q2, before rebounding in the third quarter. Net exports contributed<br />

positively to growth in each of the first three quarters of 2016 after subtracting<br />

from growth in in the four quarters of 2014 and 2015. Government<br />

1 The 2017 Economic Report of the President only discusses the first three quarters of GDP and<br />

employment gains through November. It was finalized in December: only the second estimate<br />

of 2016:Q3 GDP and the November employment report had been released. Previous Economic<br />

Reports of the President were finalized in February.<br />

65

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