Major revision sees US GDP soar past expectations

The second reading of Q2 GDP saw the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) raise its estimate from 1.7% to 2.5% on an annualised basis. Economists had expected an annualised expansion of 2.2%. The BEA said the upwards revision was largely due to stronger export growth and weaker import growth than initially estimated. Aside from government spending, all sectors of the economy made a positive contribution to the headline GDP number. Latest jobs data, meanwhile, showed US weekly jobless claims fell 6,000 to 331,000 last week, also ahead of expectations and another small sign of an imp...