The Big Quarter

The good news, as you may have heard, was that our nation's GDP grew by 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. This was the biggest quarterly growth since 2003, and contributed to an annual GDP growth rate of 2.4 percent for the entire year.

How did we get there? Here are some of the factors in that fourth quarter growth:

* Exports grew by a whopping 18.1 percent for the quarter.

* Nonresidential investments grew by 2.9 percent.

* Personal consumption increased by 2.0 percent.

* Sales of domestic products grew by 2.2 percent.

* And consumption expenses for the federal government grew by a negligible 0.1 percent. So even if this expansion was helped along by earlier stimulus activities, the economy is growing on its own now.