“Real gross domestic product — the value of the production of goods and services in the United States, adjusted for price changes — increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014,” the statement said.
The US economy grew at 5 percent in the third quarter, according to the statement.
The positive economic growth was stifled by harmful economic addition of federal government spending, the statement said.
The statement also said that the slowing down of federal government spending, nonresidential fixed investment, and exports was offset by an increase in the different between US goods sold and US goods produced and an increase in state and local spending.
US imports grew while US exports declined, because American goods were less demanded by consumers beginning at the end of the third quarter of 2014, the statement said.
The quarterly estimates are denoted at seasonally adjusted rates, and can change at different points throughout the year, according to the statement.