The U.S. economy is doing even better than the government thought

Shrugging off higher interest rates, America's consumers spent enough to help drive the economy to a brisk 5.2% annual pace from July through September, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Wednesday in an upgrade from its previous estimate.

The government had previously estimated that the economy grew at a 4.9% annual rate last quarter.

Wednesday's second estimate of growth for the July-September quarter confirmed that the economy sharply accelerated from its 2.1% rate from April through June. It showed that the U.S. gross domestic product — the total output of goods and services — grew at its fastest quarterly rate in nearly two years.