The Commerce Department revealed Friday that gross domestic product grew at a 4.1% pace in the second quarter, besting its 2014 pace and matching a Reuters poll of economists.
The markets were mixed, however, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 13 points, the NASDAQ down 45 points and the S&P 500 down 6 points as of 10:50 a.m. ET. Despite Thursday’s news of Amazon beating second-quarter expectations, the NASDAQ was dragged down by Intel Corp (down 8.7%) and Western Digital Corp (down 6.6%).
“We’re on track to hit the highest annual growth rate in over 13 years,” President Donald Trump said in remarks an hour after the report hit. “And I will say this right now and I will say it strongly, as the deals come in one by one, we’re going to go a lot higher than these numbers, and these are great numbers.”
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With the strong second-quarter news came a revised first-quarter GDP of 2.2% compared to the previous 2.0%.
A closer look at the drivers behind the growth showed an increase in both consumer and business spending, as well as increases in exports and government spending. Furthermore, personal consumption expenditures increased by 4%, business investment grew by 7.3% and federal government outlays increased by 3.5%.
In addition to government spending, the Trump administration used a mix of tax cuts and deregulation to help spurn growth. In terms of the biggest impact, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told CNBC earlier this week that deregulation was key, making companies feel more at ease when it came to committing capital.
“During each of two previous administrations, we averaged just over 1.8 percent GDP growth. By contrast, we are now on track to hit an average GDP annual growth of over 3 percent, and it could be substantially over 3 percent,” said Trump. “Each point, by the way, means approximately $3 trillion and 10 million jobs.”
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