The economy grew at a 2.8% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the third quarter of this year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Wednesday in a preliminary estimate, suggesting underlying resilience in commerce that has helped keep Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential ambitions alive.
The consensus among economists was that gross domestic product would increase at a 3% rate.
The headline growth rate is a number that Harris, who has been buffeted by economic headwinds, can tout on the campaign trail with less than a week until the election.
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For context, the economy expanded at a 3% rate in the second quarter and just 1.4% in the first. The BEA will revise its third-quarter GDP estimate twice more in the coming weeks.
Any economic data that has come out in the past few months has been closely scrutinized, given the proximity to the elections, which take place this Tuesday. The economy is the biggest issue for voters during this election cycle, with Republicans emphasizing voter discontent and Democrats trying to reframe focus on encouraging economic developments — such as resilient GDP growth.
Still, GDP growth and the stable labor market are being overshadowed by the elephant in the room — inflation.
Inflation and high interest rates have made life more unaffordable for voters. While the inflation rate, as tracked by the consumer price index, has fallen to 2.4% for the year ending in September, nearly four years of cumulative inflation has taken a toll on voters.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has been working to emphasize the years of too-high inflation and try to message that voters’ lives were better under Trump than under four years of Biden, and by proxy, Harris.
Meanwhile, Harris’s team has tried to deemphasize the economy and focus on other campaign themes, a major one being the push to frame Trump as undemocratic and a threat to abortion access. When Biden was still running, the campaign had tried unsuccessfully to convince voters that the economy was in good shape and tout the strong jobs market.
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From January 2021, the month President Joe Biden was sworn into office, overall prices have increased by about 20%. Voters have penalized Democrats for the fact that goods and services cost much more now than when Biden came into office.
Because of the higher inflation, the Federal Reserve was forced to raise interest rates to their highest level in decades. That adds to consumer pain because it makes it more expensive to take on debt and take out loans and makes homebuying more expensive by driving up mortgage rates.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
