Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House. But officially, the Commerce Department said Thursday, the economy grew 2.9 percent last year. The White House method is to calculate the change from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018, which is preferred by many economists, including the Federal Reserve. The economy grew 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2018, 3.4 percent in the third quarter and a 2.2 percent in the final quarter. The inflection point was really the fourth quarter last year,” said Gregory Daco, U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.

Source: Washington Post March 28, 2019 13:21 UTC