{"id":1673096,"date":"2014-02-03T12:13:51","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T20:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/2014\/02\/03\/consumer-spending-drives-u-s-economic-growth\/"},"modified":"2014-02-07T08:48:27","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T16:48:27","slug":"consumer-spending-drives-u-s-economic-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/2014\/02\/03\/consumer-spending-drives-u-s-economic-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer spending drives U.S. economic growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S.&nbsp;economy rose by 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, pointing to optimistic prospects for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/Solutions\" target=\"_self\" class=\"dnautolink\">retail industry<\/a> in the coming year. Consumer spending increased by 3.3 percent, marking the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/news\/2014-01-30\/economy-in-u-dot-s-dot-grew-3-dot-2-percent-as-consumer-spending-picked-up#p2\" target=\"_blank\">greatest growth in three years<\/a>, Bloomberg News reported. Consequently, some retailers are experiencing greater demand and better business conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The growth comes after a period of challenges for the economy. Not only were markets abroad impacted by the European economic crisis, but&nbsp;U.S. government spending cuts, fiscal battles and a government shutdown caused setbacks. USA Today noted that the last half of 2013 was the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/money\/business\/2014\/01\/30\/fourth-quarter-gdp\/5050219\/\" target=\"_blank\">best economic stretch since the end of 2011<\/a>. Economists are hopeful that the country has finally overcome some of the challenges that&nbsp;occurred over the past few years.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;For a period that included a government shutdown, it was a pretty successful quarter,&quot; said Sam Coffin, an economist at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, according to Bloomberg. &quot;The momentum carries over into this year. The worst of the fiscal battles is behind us. We&#039;ll see the economy picking up.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Some businesses are already seeing greater demand, the news source said, and retail customer trends indicate that Americans are spending more confidently thanks to job growth and property value improvements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. economy rose by 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, pointing to optimistic prospects for the retail industry in the coming year. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/2014\/02\/03\/consumer-spending-drives-u-s-economic-growth\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1673097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1673096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retail-customer-business-intelligence"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1673096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1673097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1673096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1673096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1673096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}