U.S. GDP Gives a Reason for Cautious Optimism

It appears that the United States’ economy is slowly getting back on the right track. This is great news for financial professionals, especially since the knowledge of unfolding financial trends provides such a tremendous boost to you and your clients’ bottom line.

The U.S. Commerce Department released its report on the state of the American economy on July 30th, and the findings were promising. The economy grew by 4% in the second fiscal quarter of 2014 – great news for business owners and tax payers alike after a dismal start to the fiscal year.

The Commerce Department’s report on its findings listed some of the reasons for the economic turnaround. “The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, exports, nonresidential fixed investment, state and local government spending, and residential fixed investment,” the report reads. “Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, [also] increased.”

News of the GDP increase coupled with news of significant private sector job growth in July projects a positive outlook for the U.S. economy after what has been a difficult several years. It’s still far too early to say the U.S. is totally out of the woods, though. With the job market looking bleak and exports down .61% from the first fiscal quarter, there’s still a lot of work to be done before investors can be fully optimistic about the long-term future of the U.S. economy. Still, the fact that economists are pleased with the economy’s second quarter performance is great news for the overall health of the American financial sphere.