Economic growth is expected to continue at a rapid pace in the third quarter, according to a very preliminary forecast from the Atlanta Fed.
The central bank district estimates that GDP will increase 5 percent for the July-to-September period, according to an update posted Wednesday.
If the forecast is accurate, it will come on top of a strong 4.1 percent second quarter that was buoyed by a jump in consumer and business spending. President Donald Trump boasted Friday that growth would go “a lot higher” even though many economists, including at the Fed, expect the economy to moderate in 2019 and beyond.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDP Now forecast, however, has its skeptics. The tracker often starts off optimistic early in the quarter then cools as more data flow in. In the first quarter, the indicator at one point showed 5.4 percent growth in a quarter where GDP rose just 2.2 percent.
