Latest GDP Estimates Show Sales of Recreation Goods Outpacing Services

The government estimated real gross domestic product in the first quarter grew by 3.0% over the fourth quarter, or 0.2 percentage points lower than initial estimates. In the fourth quarter, real GDP had increased 5.6%, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The latest report estimates that production of recreational goods and vehicles reached $445.1 billion, up 3.3% from the fourth quarter and 10.4% from the same quarter in 2009. Sales of recreational services reached $345 billion, up 0.04% from the fourth quarter and down 0.07% from the fourth quarter of 2009.

The GDP estimates released Thursday are based on more complete source data than were available for the “advance” estimate issued last month.  The lower estimated reflects upward revisions to estimates of imports and a downward revision to personal consumption expenditures that were partially offset by an upward revision to exports.

The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, exports, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from state and local government spending and residential fixed investment.  Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, increased 1.7% in the first quarter, the same increase as in the advance estimate; this index increased 2.0% in the fourth quarter.  Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.1% in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 1.5% in the fourth.

The change in real private inventories added 1.65 percentage points to the first-quarter change in real GDP, after adding 3.79 percentage points to the fourth-quarter change.  Private businesses increased
inventories $33.9 billion in the first quarter, following decreases of $19.7 billion in the fourth quarter and $139.2 billion in the third.

Real final sales of domestic product — GDP less change in private inventories — increased 1.4% in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 1.7% in the fourth.