U.S. Growth at Slowest Since 2016, Complicating Trump’s Pitch
Boeing’s troubles, trade disruption and a tight job market held back growth last year, and a more subdued expansion appears to lie ahead.

By
Patricia Cohen
The government’s latest economic scorecard arrived on Thursday, offering fresh evidence that the economy continues to grow, but at a frustratingly slow pace.
As the nation heads toward a presidential election, the question is whether voters will view steady but unspectacular growth as a sign that President Trump’s handling of the economy has succeeded or stumbled.
Gross domestic product, which measures the value of goods and services produced inside the United States, grew at a 2.1 percent annual rate between October and December, the same as the previous three months, according to
preliminary data released by the Commerce Department. As for 2019 as a whole, the report shows that the economy turned in a weaker annual showing than it did in 2017 and 2018.
In previous decades, growth that consistently fell below 3 percent would have been seen as distressing. Now most economists — at least those outside the administration — see normal growth circling the 2 percent mark.