The latest GDP data isn't as bad as it looks. Here's what to know.
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After humming along at a robust pace for much of 2025, the economy hit a wall in the fourth quarter, with a six-week government shutdown and slowdown in consumer spending stunting growth at the end of the year. Edited by Alain Sherter In:
After humming along at a robust pace for much of 2025, the economy hit a wall in the fourth quarter, with a six-week government shutdown and slowdown in consumer spending stunting growth at the end of the year.
Gross domestic product — which measures the nation's output of goods and services — grew at a meager 1.4% annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. That came in well under economists' forecasts of roughly 2% growth and is down sharply from the previous three months, when the economy expanded at blistinerg 4.3% pace.
Yet while the GDP number was weaker than expected, analysts say the economy remains on firm ground and is likely to accelerate in the coming months.
"Today's headline number is certainly disappointing," eToro U.S. investment analyst Bret Kenwell told CBS News. "When you peel back the layers a little bit, it's not quite as bad as it appears on the surface."
The latest GDP data, which was delayed due to the recent government shutdown, was the first snapshot of fourth-quarter economic growth. The Commerce Department will deliver two more readings for the quarter in the coming months.
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