US economy grew 2.2% in fourth quarter

The US economy grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter, slowing sharply from the prior quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday.
The department left unrevised its previous estimate of gross domestic product growth, which analysts had expected would be raised to a 2.4 percent pace after the economy's blistering 5.0 percent growth in the third quarter.
The department revised higher consumer spending in the October-December period, notably in health care, but that was offset by an upward revision to imports, which surged 10.1 percent.
Also subtracting from GDP was a sharp 7.3 percent fall in federal government spending and slower inventory investment.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of output in the world's largest economy, rose 4.4 percent, the strongest increase in nearly nine years.
Corporate profits fell 1.4 percent quarter-over-quarter, after rising 3.1 percent in the third quarter. For all of 2014, corporate profits fell 0.8 percent following a 4.2 percent rise in 2013.
In 2014, the economy grew 2.4 percent, picking up from the 2.2 percent rate in 2013.
"The first quarter looks even softer, in part due to adverse weather, but abstracting from the vagaries of the quarterly data, real growth appears to be trending close to a respectable three percent pace," said Scott Hoyt of Moody's Analytics.