US economy slowed down sharply in the third quarter

The US economy slowed down sharply in the third quarter, according to one widely-followed real time gauge of economic activity.

The rate of growth in gross domestic product slipped to an anualised 0.9% from the 3.7% pace seen over the three months to June, according to the 1 October update to the Federal Reserve bank of Atlanta´s GDPNow model.

On 28 September the same model had pegged the economy´s rate of growth at 1.8%.

The Atlanta Fed was now forecasting that net exports subtracted 0.9 percentage points from the rate of growth in GDP, far more than the 0.2 percentage points initially estimated.