Even reading between the lines, experts say the latest report card on the economy is promising.
On Wednesday the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy grew by an annualized rate of 3 percent in the second quarter.Those beat expectations.
“Consumers are happy, and we’ve got the economy growing faster than what most people thought,” observed financial expert Derrick Kinney.
The statistics were a sharp reversal of the decline of .5 percent during the first quarter as observers fretted over the potential impact of the Trump Administration’s new tariffs on international trade.
“Most people thought that tariffs would tank the economy and that simply isn’t happening.” Kinney recalled. “We’re seeing the tariffs get absorbed. And consumer spending continues to be strong. This is good news. The better news will be whether it can continue in the next quarter, and the quarter after that.”
Kinney says it can seem difficult to gauge the health of the economy with some questions still unresolved, but he sees great strength. “It does feel like this is a board game where the rules keep changing every single day,” he said. “Once we see the tariffs start to settle down, we can see the market really take off.”
Questions about global trade did produce potentially confusing crosscurrents as businesses dramatically increased their imported inventories in the first quarter to get ahead of possible tariffs, then cut back on all that buying in the second quarter.
Kinney predicted such ambiguity would be short lived. “The economy is stronger than most people expect,” he said. “It is like a Lamborghini stuck in city traffic and once we see a lot of these unresolved issues clear out, that Lamborghini can slam on the gas pedal and go forward.”
Photo: Moment RF