Third-quarter GDP increased 3.8 percent

Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S. — increased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the third quarter of 2005, according to advance estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 3.3 percent.

The Bureau emphasized that the third-quarter "advance" estimates are based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency. The third-quarter "preliminary" estimates, based on more comprehensive data, will be released November 30.

The major contributors to the increase in real GDP in the third quarter were personal consumption expenditures (PCE), equipment and software, federal government spending, and residential fixed investment. The contributions of these components were partly offset by a negative contribution from private inventory investment.

Final sales of computers contributed 0.11 percentage point to the third-quarter growth in real GDP after contributing 0.32 percentage point to the second-quarter growth. Motor vehicle output contributed 0.48 percentage point to the third-quarter growth in real GDP after subtracting 0.01 percentage point from the second-quarter growth.

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