Mubasher: The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta upgraded its US economic growth projection for the first quarter of 2019, according to Reuters.

The US economy, the world’s biggest, grew at a 2.8% annualised rate, based upon data that pointed to the strongest domestic retail sales growth in one year and a half last March, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model showed on Thursday.

Moreover, US business inventories grew by 0.2% during last February, according to the US Commerce Department.

The forecast growth marked a faster momentum than the 2.4% rise in gross domestic product (GDP) estimated by the Atlanta Fed on Wednesday.

It is worth noting that the US economy posted a growth of 2.2% in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with 3.4% in the prior quarter.