I wrote a post at the start of the month about the latest data release about economic growth. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis today revised the figures, downward, so I felt I should update.

As I noted in that last post, the economy grew by 2.9 percent in 2018, matching 2015, the best year of President Obama’s tenure for that statistic. Still true. The economy was 3 percent bigger in the fourth quarter of 2018 than in the fourth quarter of 2017, just a tiny bit below the previous estimate of 3.1 and the best four-quarter measure since mid-2015.


The biggest change is that the deceleration that was already evident in the economy now looks more rapid. Growth slowed from 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2018 to 3.4 percent in the third and then 2.2 percent in the fourth.