The Federal Reserve must be pleased with the top-line numbers in Thursday’s fourth-quarter GDP report, which showed the U.S. economy grew by a solid 2.9% while its preferred price index slowed to 3.2%. But drill down, and the economy looks to be losing momentum.
Maybe the best news from the report is that consumer spending continued to increase at a steady 2.1% and contributed about half of the GDP growth. It appears that rising interest rates haven’t yet caused consumers to pull back, though the December retail sales report showed a sharp drop in spending and could augur a slowdown.
