The economy grew at by 2.9 percent in 2018, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday morning in its quarterly report on gross domestic product, tied for the strongest growth in 13 years.

The figure fell just shy of President Trump’s stated goal of yearly 3 percent growth.

Still, Thursday's report showed GDP growing at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2018, better than analysts expected for the quarter that included the beginning of the partial government shutdown.

Most economists expect growth to slow in the quarters ahead. Federal Reserve officials, for instance, see GDP growth slowing to around 2.3 percent in 2019, and then slowing even further to 2.0 percent in 2020. The partial government shutdown, in particular, is likely to have lowered first-quarter growth though the Congressional Budget Office believes that the effect will fade in subsequent quarters, and not be reflected in annual growth for 2019.

Trump boosted output last year by increasing spending and cutting taxes. In the years ahead, however, growth is expected to slow as the U.S. population ages.

[Also read: Entering year 3: Trump’s economy better than Obama’s, jobs highest ‘in decades’]

In one way of looking at the data, though, 2018 economic growth did beat Trump's 3 percent goal. Comparing the fourth quarter of 2018 to the fourth quarter of 2017, the economy grew 3.1 percent. The 2.9 percent figure, in comparison, represents an average of the economy's growth over the course of the year.

Thursday's GDP data will be revised in the quarters ahead, and could ultimately be higher or lower.

After years of raising interest rates in order to get ahead of potential inflation, Fed officials now see the greater risk as setting rates too high, and have signaled that they won't pursue further rate hikes this year. That decision is a reflection of the maturity of the business cycle and of the few troubling signs that have crept into the economic data.

Thursday's GDP figure gives Trump a much-needed win in an eventful 24-hour period that saw the president’s summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un abruptly fall short and his former personal lawyer label him a “con man” before Congress.