The U.S. economy grew at a faster pace than previously estimated during the second quarter, as strong consumer spending and private investment led to an unexpected but significant upward revision to real GDP growth. In its third and final estimate, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that real GDP had increased at an annualized rate of 2.2% between April and June, up from 1.5% in the previous estimate.
The revision, which surprised analysts, who expected little or no change from the first two estimates, was due to upward adjustments to private investment, public spending and personal consumption spending. The latter was especially surprising, given that inflation remains high, gasoline prices are near all-time highs, and consumer confidence is at very low levels. According to the BEA, personal consumption spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of GDP, grew at an annualized rate of 3.8%, up from 3.4% in the previous estimate and just 0.7% in the first quarter of 2026. Non-residential investment rose at a rate of 9% in the second quarter, driven largely by the massive construction of data centers for artificial intelligence. Actual final sales to domestic private buyers – a common indicator of the health of the economy that excludes government spending and foreign trade and is sometimes called “core GDP” – increased at an annualized rate of 4.6%. This suggests that the U.S. economy is humming along, even though many Americans are struggling to cope with high prices and stagnant real wages.
As our chart shows, consumer spending was the main driver of GDP growth in the second quarter, contributing 2.51 percentage points to total growth. Private investment and exports also increased and contributed 0.82 and 0.56 percentage points, respectively. Imports, which are subtracted from the GDP calculation, soared at an annualized rate of 12.6% in the second quarter, subtracting 1.66 percentage points from real GDP growth during that period.