GDP grew 4.3% in third quarter as Americans spent more

Household spending is increasingly divided between wealthy consumers who are helping to keep the economy humming, and everyone else.

The U.S. economy grew at a rapid rate of 4.3% in the third quarter of this year, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. The estimate, which had been delayed by the government shutdown, shows that the economy remained resilient over a three-month period that saw fewer new tariffs announced and consumers shopping for back-to-school goods.

If confirmed, the reading that covered the months of July, August and September would be the best quarter of growth for the U.S. economy in two years, since the same period in 2023.

Analysts and economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected an increase of 3.2%.

A shopper in Philadelphia this month. The U.S. economy grew at a resilient 4.3% in the third quarter of the year. Matt Rourke / AP fileThe expansion in economic output, or gross domestic product, was fueled by "increases in consumer spending, exports, and government spending," the BEA said. "Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased."

Consumer spending this year has increasingly been characterized by a growing divide between wealthy households that aren't changing their habits amid rising costs of living, and middle- and lower-income households that have cut back in response to a weaker labor market and tariffs and inflation that both drive up the cost of daily expenses.