U.S. economy grew slowly in first half of 2011

U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis has released the advance estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) for the 2nd quarter of 2011. Real GDP grew 1.3% at an annual rate, which was below private-sector expectations of 1.8% growth.
 
This increase was up from 0.4% growth in the 1st quarter, which was revised down from 1.9%. GDP has now grown for eight consecutive quarters.

The report also contained revisions to prior years. The most notable revision was to 2009, in which GDP growth was revised down 0.9 percentage points, indicating that the recession was even more severe than initially estimated.