The US economy grew less than expected in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Commerce Department. This is likely to be a significant issue in President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign against his Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump in November. Data shows that the US only saw a 1.6% GDP growth in the first three months of the year, much lower than the 2.4% predicted by analysts.
Despite the decrease in growth, the US economy remains ahead of other major industrialized economies. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts a 2.7% growth rate for the US for the entire year of 2024, which is an increase from last year. This is significantly higher than the growth rates expected for other G7 countries like Germany’s growth outlook is just 0.3%, despite some mildly improving economic indicators like increasing consumer confidence due to wage hikes.
The slowdown in economic growth can be attributed to several factors such as declines in consumer spending and exports as well as state, federal, and local spending. Despite this, most currencies in the G20 group of major economies have depreciated against the US dollar this year, although it has contributed slightly to decline in exports but overall economic outlook for country remains relatively strong compared to other industrialized states.[