US: Economy Advanced 6.6% from April to June

WASHINGTON - The United States said Thursday its economy grew at an annualized 6.6% rate in the April-to-June period as the world’s largest economy continued its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said the second quarter reading was a tenth of a percentage point higher than last month’s advance estimate and was up from the 6.3% annualized advance in the January-to-March period. The agency said the steady growth reflected the number of businesses that were reopening in the second quarter and continued government financial assistance to combat the worst effects of the pandemic. Some economists are predicting that the U.S. economy could slow in the second half of 2021 as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus sweeps through the country and hospitalizations surge again.