Stronger consumer spending pushes Q4 GDP growth to 1.4%

Washington

US economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2015, but not as sharply as previously estimated, with fairly strong consumer spending offsetting the drag from efforts by businesses to reduce an inventory overhang.

Gross domestic product increased at a 1.4 per cent annual rate instead of the previously reported 1.0 per cent pace, the Commerce Department said on Friday in its third GDP estimate.

GDP growth was initially estimated to have risen at only a 0.7 per cent rate. The economy gre…