Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property
located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2011 (that
is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter) according to the "advance" estimate released by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 3.1 percent.

      The Bureau emphasized that the first-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source
data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 3).  The
"second" estimate for the first quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on May 26, 2011.

      The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from
personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, exports, and nonresidential
fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending and
state and local government spending.  Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP,
increased.

      The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a sharp upturn in imports, a
deceleration in PCE, a larger decrease in federal government spending, and decelerations in
nonresidential fixed investment and in exports that were partly offset by a sharp upturn in private
inventory investment.