US economy growth sluggish at 1.5% in Q2, consumer spending rises 3.4%

The US economy grew at a sluggish 1.5 per cent pace from April through June.

But consumer spending stayed strong.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that growth in gross domestic product - the nation's output of a goods and services - decelerated from a 2.1 per cent pace from January through March.

The second-quarter growth number was unchanged from the department's first estimate.

Still, consumer spending - which accounts for about 70 per cent of US economic activity - increased at a healthy 3.4 per cent annual clip, up from 0.5 per cent in the January-March period.

The reason for the lackluster growth number was imports.

They are subtracted from growth because GDP is only supposed to count domestic US production.

Imports rose at a 12.5 per cent annual pace from April through June, partly due to a surge in shipments of computer chips and other products that support artificial intelligence investment, and sliced 1.64 percentage points off second-quarter growth.

But business