Economy growing at robust 4.1% pace

By Jeannine Aversa
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Brisk business spending helped the economy expand at a healthy 4.1 percent pace at the end of 2003, raising hopes the recovery will be durable and spur more meaningful job growth in coming months.

The Commerce Department's latest reading on gross domestic product, released yesterday, showed the economy grew slightly faster in the October-to-December quarter than the 4 percent annual rate estimated a month ago.

GDP measures the value of goods and services produced in the United States, and is an important gauge of the economy's fitness.

Although the fourth-quarter pace was slower than the breakneck 8.2 percent growth rate registered in the third quarter, the second half of last year represented the fastest back-to-back quarterly increases since the first two quarters of 1984.

"The economy is on track to having a good year," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com. "If history is any guide, we should see better job growth in the spring and summer."

Looking ahead, economic growth in the current January-to-March quarter is expected to clock in at a 4.5 percent rate or higher, according to some projections. Growth in the next quarter also should be in that range, some economists believe.

Tax refunds, which the government will start mailing out this spring, tax incentives for businesses and decades-low short-term borrowing costs should provide juice to the economy in the first half of this year, economists said.