Better Retail Sales boost GDP
The Atlanta Fed GDPNow tracker for Q1 US GDP growth rose to 2.8% from 2.4% as reported yesterday (that was up from 2.1% previously).
In their own words.
The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2019 is 2.8 percent on April 18, up from 2.4 percent on April 17. After this morning's retail sales report from the U.S. Census Bureau, the nowcast of first-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth increased from 0.8 percent to 1.1 percent. After this morning's retail inventories release from the Census Bureau, the nowcast of the contribution of inventory investment to first-quarter real GDP growth increased from 0.24 percentage points to 0.39 percentage points.
Below is the chart of the estimate vs. the Blue Chip concensus.
The next report will be released on April 19th. The 1Q GDP is scheduled to be released on April 26 at 8:30 AM ET.
