August 31st, 2011 
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The struggling U.S. economy expanded even more slowly than previously thought in 2Q of 2011 but a breakdown of the growth hinted that a new recession could be avoided.
The Commerce Department said on Friday that gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 1 percent.
From Reuters.com:
The rate of growth between April and June was cut from the government’s first reading of 1.3 percent and followed a lethargic 0.4 percent pace in the first three months of 2011.
This means the economy grew only 0.7 percent in the first half of the year. Nonetheless, and despite a sharp fall in consumer confidence this month, economists do not believe the economy will fall back into recession.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 55.7 this month from 63.7 in July. It was slightly better than August’s preliminary reading of 54.9, which had been the lowest level since May 1980.
The weak growth pace has been blamed on high gasoline prices, bad weather and supply-chain disruptions from the March earthquake in Japan, all of which are considered to be temporary drags on the economy.
“While confidence indicators have plummeted of late, the most timely hard numbers certainly do not suggest that the economy has fallen back into a recession,” said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York.
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