Consumer spending has been a key engine of the U.S. economy, but polls show Americans are getting more concerned about their finances.
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The U.S. economy grew robustly in July, August and September, powered by steady consumer spending, especially on health care.
The gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the nation’s economic activity — for the third quarter grew at an annual rate of 4.3%, much faster than the 3.8% expansion seen between April and June, according to the Commerce Department on Tuesday.
Growth has picked up from the early months of 2025, when the U.S. economy actually shrunk at an annual rate of 0.6% as President Trump prepared sweeping global tariffs.
The latest figures are already quite dated. Tuesday’s report was originally due in late October but was disrupted by the historic government shutdown. And it now comes as polling increasingly finds Americans glum on President Trump’s handling of the economy and the high cost of living.
Third-quarter data shows business and residential investment declining. Spending by state and local governments rose. The impacts of trade swings were more mixed in the latest report, compared to earlier in the year: imports of goods declined, while exports increased. Imports get subtracted from the government’s measure of domestic economic activity, so they tend to depress GDP.