The US economy did not grow as strongly as expected in the spring

The US economy did not grow as strongly as expected in the spring. The gross domestic product (GDP) rose from April to June for the year only by 6.5 percent, as the Department of Commerce in Washington announced on the basis of preliminary data. Experts had expected an increase of 8.5 percent, after a revised plus of 6.3 percent in the first quarter. "The GDP growth could have been stronger, but delivery bottlenecks and a lack of staff have hindered a stronger expansion of production," said economist Bastian Hepperle from Bankhaus Lampe. In his view, the massive financial aid from the state and the central bank could therefore not fully develop, and the labor market in particular was still lame. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that the US economy, which is now running smoothly after the corona crisis in 2020, will grow by 7.0 percent this year - also because of President Joe Biden's huge stimulus packages. This number would even exceed China's official growth target.  Meanwhile, the Department of Labor reported that the number of initial jobless claims in the United States has decreased. A total of 400,000 Americans applied for government support last week. In the seven days before it had been 424,000. Economists had expected 380,000 initial applications for the previous week. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) is strengthening the economy and thus also the labor market, which has been thrown back by years by the pandemic, with powerful cash injections of 120 billion dollars per month. Fed chairman Jerome Powell wants to see "strong" job data before a roadmap for scaling back aid can be presented. Because the central bank is still a long way from achieving its goal: there are currently still around 6.8 million jobs missing compared to the pre-crisis level. But the number of jobs has recently accelerated. After an increase of 850,000 in June, according to economists, July should even bring an increase of 926,000 jobs.