*U.S. ECONOMY GREW 1.5% IN SECOND QUARTER AFTER 2% IN FIRST QTR a little better than expected

Those are annualized percentages, right?

Yes.

Econoday was expecting readings of +1.2% for GDP and +1.6% for GDP Price Index.

BEA Release:

http://bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp....

This excludes the (extensive!) revision section in the Release:

      Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property
located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 1.5 percent in the second quarter of 2012,
(that is, from the first quarter to the second quarter), according to the "advance" estimate released by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the first quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent.

      The Bureau emphasized that the second-quarter advance estimate released today is based on
source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page
3).  The "second" estimate for the second quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on
August 29, 2012.

BOX._____
	The estimates released today reflect the regular annual revision of the national income and product
accounts (NIPAs), beginning with the estimates for the first quarter of 2009.  Annual revisions, which
are usually released in July, incorporate source data that are more complete, more detailed, and
otherwise more reliable than those previously available.  This release includes the revised quarterly
estimates of GDP, corporate profits, and personal income and provides an overview of the effects of the
revision.

	The August 2012 Survey of Current Business will contain NIPA tables and an article describing
the revisions.  These NIPA tables will be available on BEA’s Web site at www.bea.gov by August 3,
2012.
_________


FOOTNOTE.______
        Quarterly estimates are expressed at seasonally adjusted annual rates, unless otherwise
specified.  Quarter-to-quarter dollar changes are differences between these published estimates.  Percent
changes are calculated from unrounded data and are annualized.  "Real" estimates are in chained (2005)
dollars.  Price indexes are chain-type measures.

      This news release is available on BEA’s Web site along with the Technical Note and Highlights
related to this release.
________________

      The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from
personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, nonresidential fixed investment, private inventory
investment, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a negative contribution from state
and local government spending.  Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

      The deceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in PCE, an
acceleration in imports, and decelerations in residential fixed investment and in nonresidential fixed
investment that were partly offset by an upturn in private inventory investment, a smaller decrease in
federal government spending, and an acceleration in exports.

      Motor vehicle output added 0.13 percentage point to the second-quarter change in real GDP after
adding 0.72 percentage point to the first-quarter change.  Final sales of computers subtracted 0.07
percentage point from the second-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.02 percentage point to the
first-quarter change.

      The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents,
increased 0.7 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 2.5 percent in the first.
Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.4 percent in
the second quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in the first.

      Real personal consumption expenditures increased 1.5 percent in the second quarter, compared
with an increase of 2.4 percent in the first.  Durable goods decreased 1.0 percent, in contrast to an
increase of 11.5 percent.  Nondurable goods increased 1.5 percent, compared with an increase of 1.6
percent.  Services increased 1.9 percent, compared with an increase of 1.3.

      Real nonresidential fixed investment increased 5.3 percent in the second quarter, compared with
an increase of 7.5 percent in the first.  Nonresidential structures increased 0.9 percent, compared with an
increase of 12.9 percent.  Equipment and software increased 7.2 percent, compared with an increase of
5.4 percent.  Real residential fixed investment increased 9.7 percent, compared with an increase of 20.5
percent.

      Real exports of goods and services increased 5.3 percent in the second quarter, compared with an
increase of 4.4 percent in the first.  Real imports of goods and services increased 6.0 percent, compared
with an increase of 3.1 percent.

      Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 0.4 percent
in the second quarter, compared with a decrease of 4.2 percent in the first.  National defense decreased
0.4 percent, compared with a decrease of 7.1 percent.  Nondefense decreased 0.3 percent, in contrast to
an increase of 1.8 percent.  Real state and local government consumption expenditures and gross
investment decreased 2.1 percent, compared with a decrease of 2.2.

      The change in real private inventories added 0.32 percentage point to the second-quarter change
in real GDP after subtracting 0.39 percentage point from the first-quarter change.  Private businesses
increased inventories $66.3 billion in the second quarter, following increases of $56.9 billion in the first
quarter and $70.5 billion in the fourth.

      Real final sales of domestic product -- GDP less change in private inventories -- increased 1.2
percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in the first.


Gross domestic purchases

      Real gross domestic purchases -- purchases by U.S. residents of goods and services wherever
produced -- increased 1.8 percent in the second quarter, the same increase as in the first quarter.


Disposition of personal income

      Current-dollar personal income increased $140.5 billion (4.3 percent) in the second quarter,
compared with an increase of $199.9 billion (6.3 percent) in the first.

      Personal current taxes increased $24.9 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase
of $30.0 billion in the first.

      Disposable personal income increased $115.6 billion (4.0 percent) in the second quarter,
compared with an increase of $169.9 billion (6.0 percent) in the first.  Real disposable personal income
increased 3.2 percent, compared with an increase of 3.4 percent.

      Personal outlays increased $59.9 billion (2.1 percent) in the second quarter, compared with an
increase of $143.1 billion (5.2 percent) in the first.  Personal saving -- disposable personal income less
personal outlays -- was $475.3 billion in the second quarter, compared with $419.5 billion in the first.
The personal saving rate -- saving as a percentage of disposable personal income -- was 4.0 percent in
the second quarter, compared with 3.6 percent in the first.  For a comparison of personal saving in
BEA’s national income and product accounts with personal saving in the Federal Reserve Board’s flow
of funds accounts and data on changes in net worth, go to www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/Nipa-Frb.asp.


Current-dollar GDP

      Current-dollar GDP -- the market value of the nation's output of goods and services -- increased
3.1 percent, or $117.6 billion, in the second quarter to a level of $15,595.9 billion.  In the first quarter,
current-dollar GDP increased 4.2 percent, or $157.3 billion.


BOX._________
      Information on the assumptions used for unavailable source data is provided in a technical note
that is posted with the news release on BEA's Web site.  Within a few days after the release, a detailed
"Key Source Data and Assumptions" file is posted on the Web site.  In the middle of each month, an
analysis of the current quarterly estimate of GDP and related series is made available on the Web site;
click on Survey of Current Business, "GDP and the Economy."

Don't worry Econoday will get that reading once all of the revisions are done.

I see adjustments to these numbers coming...after the election.

zerohedge saying beat partly driven by prior quarter downward revision...

also ForexFactory has the report in-line with consensus but everyone seems to be calling it a beat so maybe they're wrong?

My newsfeed said expectations were 1.1%. Not sure where ForexFactory got their number. Mine could be wrong too though.