Q1 economic growth revised up to 0.8%

Washington

US economic growth slowed in the first quarter although not as sharply as initially thought, amid a surge in spending on home building and a steady increase in inventory investment by businesses.

Gross domestic product rose at a 0.8 per cent annual rate as opposed to the 0.5 per cent pace reported last month, the Commerce Department said in its second GDP estimate on Friday. It was the weakest performance since the first quarter of 2015.

The upward revision to the first-quarter GDP growth estimate also reflected a…