The United States has beat China in economic growth for the first time in 20 years, President Joe Biden said on Thursday after Commerce Department data showed a 2021 GDP of 5.7% that turned out to be the largest economic expansion in four decades
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2022) The United States has beat China in economic growth for the first time in 20 years, President Joe Biden said on Thursday after Commerce Department data showed a 2021 GDP of 5.7% that turned out to be the largest economic expansion in four decades.
"For the first time in 20 years, our economy grew faster than China's," Biden proclaimed in a statement issued by the White House.
Earlier on Thursday, the Commerce Department reported a GDP expansion of 6.9% for the fourth quarter of last year that rounded up 2021 growth at 5.7%.
Economists had projected a fourth quarter growth of just 5.5%.
"This is a strong reading and the 2021 annual growth was the strongest since 1984," economist Adam Button said in a post on ForexLive. "The nominal readings are simply astonishing. A good chunk of this quarter is inventories but that's going to be a tailwind all year long as companies move from just-in-time delivery to just-in-case inventories."
The US economy shrank 3.5% in 2020 from the coronavirus pandemic measures. The economy began recovering last year but the growth was spotty at first - with a 3.5% expansion in the first quarter, 3.6% in the second and 2.3% in the third - before the ramp up in the final quarter.
