How US economy proved sceptics wrong this year

The US, the world's largest economy, surprised yet again by posting a strong growth in the third quarter of this year.

- BYN MADHAVAN

Higher consumer spending, increased investments in AI, larger defence spending, higher exports and lower imports, fuelled growth. Mint explains:

1 What is driving the US economy?

According to data released by the Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US economy grew by 4.3% in the third quarter-the fastest pace in nearly two years. This is 130 basis points more than the 3% growth that experts had projected. In the second quarter, the US economy grew by 3.8%. Overall growth in the first three quarters of this year is 2.5%. Strong consumer spending, higher corporate artificial intelligence investments, larger defence spending by the government, higher exports and lower imports ensured the US gross domestic product rose sharply in the third quarter.