The first revision for 2012's fourth quarter GDP came out yesterday, and it was about as mild a revision as you can imagine, yet also, in another sense, highly significant. As you probably remember, the Commerce Department's first estimate of growth for that quarter came in at negative 0.1 percent. It's now been revised upward to a positive 0.1 percent, meaning the economy grew after all.
All told, domestic economic growth is now believed to have averaged 2.2 percent for the entirety of 2012. That's up from 1.8 percent GDP growth that we had in 2011.
There was one down number from today's revision: Consumer spending, originally believed to have risen by 2.2 percent on the quarter, ticked down to 2.1 percent. But business investment was revised upward significantly, from a 9.7 percent increase to 11.2 percent.
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