U.S. economic activity expanded faster than expected in the final three months of 2022, marking a resilient end to a year defined by stubborn inflation, rising interest rates, and battered financial markets.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis' advance estimate of Q4 U.S. gross domestic product (GDP)showed a 2.9% annualized increase in economic growth for the period, better than consensus forecasts.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the U.S. economy grew at an annualized pace of 2.6% during the final three months of 2022.
For the full year, GDP increased 2.1% in 2022.
Initial Jobless Claims reduced by 6K to 186K. Continuing jobless claims were 1.675M.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% for the week ended Jan. 14, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate.
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 224,481 for the week ended Jan. 21, a decrease of 63,849 from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 56,437 (or -19.6%) from the previous week. There were 266,990 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022.