US Economy Grew at Moderate 2.1% Rate in Fourth Quarter

The U.S. economy grew at a moderate 2.1% rate in the final three months of 2019, capping a year when growth slowed significantly due to a weaker global economy and trade war uncertainties.

The Commerce Department said the fourth-quarter increase in the gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, matched the 2.1% gain of the third quarter.

For the whole year, GDP increased 2.3%, the weakest performance in three years.

Economists look for even slower growth in 2020 of around 1.8%.

But that could be threatened by various threats from a spreading coronavirus to a flare-up in trade tensions between the United States and China.