U.S. GDP growth slowed significantly in the first quarter, falling short of market expectations

On April 25th, the US economy slowed significantly in Quarter 1 as inflation intensified and consumer and government spending cooled. According to preliminary government estimates, US gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 1.6%. The economy's main growth engine (real personal consumption expenditure quarterly rate) grew by 2.5%. In addition, a report released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that the closely watched measure of underlying inflation (the annualized quarterly rate of the core PCE price index in Quarter 1) rose by 3.7%, a higher-than-expected increase and the first quarterly increase in a year.