Elgin Area Chamber Of Commerce: Economic Growth Slows As Consumers Pull Back

Press release from the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce:

November 02, 2021

By Rohit Diwadkar
CoStar News
 
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2% in the third quarter, down from a 6.7% rate in the second quarter, according to a new report released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This is the slowest rate of growth recorded since the economy began to recover from the early days of the pandemic last year.
 

The pace was slower than many economists anticipated, and most attributed the result to a falloff in consumer spending, which makes up 70% of economic activity.
The economy has been buffeted in recent weeks by supply-chain bottlenecks and rising prices. The federal government has also begun to pull back on delivering checks and other aid to help people cope with the public health crisis. As a result, personal consumption grew 1.6% on an annualized basis in the third quarter, compared with 12% in the second quarter.

Consumers seemed to be particularly cutting back on purchases of some big-ticket items, such as cars, which remained in relative short supply because of a shortage of computer chips. People also spent less on housing as inventories remained tight and builders complained about the difficulty in finding labor. Housing construction and renovation fell 7.7% following an 11.7% drop the previous quarter.

Source: CoStar Group, www.costar.com

This press release was produced by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.