The Commerce Department said this morning that the American economy expanded at an annual rate of 4 percent in the second quarter of 2014 after contracting by more than 2 percent in the first three months of the year.
The 4 percent growth rate was above economists’ expectations of around 3.2 percent.
Main drivers of the expansion included a robust increase in consumer spending at 2.5 percent –more than double the growth rate in the weather-impaired first quarter – and soaring dividend payments from record highs on the stock market. Investment in residential housing increased at a 7.5 percent rate and business spending on capital assets grew 7 percent.
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