FINANCIAL TIMES: The US economy shrank 0.1 per cent at an annualised rate in the fourth quarter of 2012, the first contraction in three years, rattling financial markets and highlighting the danger of across-the-board federal spending cuts due in March.
Much of the fall in gross domestic product was due to a big reversal in business inventories and a plunge in federal defence spending which each knocked 1.3 percentage points off growth. That suggests the broader economy remains on a weak but stable growth path of 1 or 2 per cent…
The US Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that “growth in economic activity paused in recent months, in large part because of weather-related disruptions and other transitory factors”, suggesting that it read little into the data… (more)
