Third-Quarter Economic Growth Revised Upward

By Mark Memmott

Published November 29, 2012 at 8:48 AM EST

Better than expected: Economic growth was higher in the third quarter than first thought. Here, a worker at a Ford plant in Michigan plugs a batter into a Ford C-MAX plug-in hybrid vehicle.

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.7 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis says. That's a sharp upward revision in its estimate of gross domestic product growth from mid-summer into the fall. In its first look at the quarter's GDP, the agency estimated growth at a 2 percent annual rate.

According to BEA, consumer spending, inventory investment, exports and federal spending all contributed to growth from July 1 through Sept. 30.

In the second quarter, GDP expanded at a 1.3 percent annual rate.

Also this morning:

There were 393,000 first-time claims for jobless benefits last week, down by 23,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration reports.

The decline brings claims back into the 350,000-to-400,000 pace they had been running at before Superstorm Sandy pummeled the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast in late October.

Wednesday, there was more modestly good economic news — about the housing market.