Mubasher: Initial estimates for US real gross domestic product (GDP) revealed an annualised growth rate of 3.2% in the first quarter of 2019, as shown by the official data released on Friday.

In the third quarter of last year, the US economy grew at annual rate of 2.2%.

Current-dollar GDP rose 3.8% or $197.6 billion, in the three months ended last March, reaching $21.06 trillion.

This came below the current-dollar GDP gain of 4.1% or by $206.9 billion in the three months ended December 2018.

US price index for gross domestic purchases went up 0.8% in the period between January and March, lower than 1.7% during the period between October and December.

Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) gauge rose 0.6%, compared with a gain of 1.5%.

Excluding volatile items such as food and energy prices, the index rose 1.3%, compared with a growth of 1.8%.

Current-dollar personal income grew $147.2 billion in the first quarter, compared with the increase of $229 billion seen in the preceding quarter.

US personal savings totalled to $1.11 trillion in the three months ended last March, compared with $1.07 trillion in the prior three months.

By 12:37 pm GMT, the US dollar index fell 0.12% to 98.0870.