Full text of U.S. Financial Data : October 28, 1999

The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.

October 28, 1999

USFinancialData
THE WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS:
Real GDP increased at a 4.8 percent annual rate during the third
quarter, appreciably faster than the 1.9 percent growth seen during
the second quarter. When measured in current prices, GDP
increased at a 5.8 percent rate in the third quarter after rising
at a 3.3 percent rate during the second quarter. Thus, growth
of the GDP price index slowed from 1.3 percent in the second
quarter to 1 percent in the third quarter.
The advance third-quarter GDP report incorporates the Bureau
of Economic Analysis’ (BEA) 11th comprehensive revision of the
National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA). Among several
major changes is the reclassification of business software purchases
as a fixed investment, rather than, as before, an intermediate
input. According to the BEA, revised data show that real GDP
has increased at a 3.5 percent annual rate during this business
expansion (first quarter of 1991 to second quarter of 1999),
0.4 percentage points more than initially thought.
Private-sector compensation costs, as measured by the employment
cost index (ECI), increased 0.8 percent for the three months ending
in September 1999. Through the first three quarters of the year,
the ECI has increased at a 3.2 percent annual rate, nearly
unchanged from the 3.3 percent gain posted in 1998 (fourth
quarter-to-fourth quarter).
New orders for manufactured durable goods fell $2.7 billion, or
1.3 percent, in September. For the third quarter, however, durable
goods orders rose 5 percent, the largest gain in 5 1/2 years.
All data are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise indicated.
U.S. Financial Data is published weekly by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of
St. Louis. For more information on data, please call (314) 444-8590. To be added to the mailing
list, please call (314) 444-8808 or (314) 444-8809.
Information in this publication is also included in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) electronic
bulletin board at (314) 621-1824 or internet World Wide Web server at www.stls.frb.org/fred.