The U.S. economy picked up steam during the second quarter, notching the fastest pace of growth in two years.
During the first full quarter with President Trump in charge, economic growth hit 3%, according to revised estimates released by the government on Wednesday.
That’s the strongest growth since the first quarter of 2015. It’s more than double the pace of the first three months of 2017 and better than original estimates for the second quarter. The government initially pegged second-quarter growth at 2.6% in July.
The economic momentum was driven by stronger consumer spending and healthier business investment.
Trump promised 4% growth on the campaign trail, but his administration has since set a goal of 3%.
The White House wants to speed up the sluggish recovery from the Great Recession by cutting taxes, slashing deregulation and ramping up infrastructure spending. So far, Trump’s economic agenda has not made it through Congress.
Yet the U.S. economy is looking healthy anyway, especially on the jobs front. Private employers accelerated hiring in August, adding 237,000 workers, according to estimates released on Wednesday by payment processing firm ADP.
The government’s more-closely watched jobs report, set to be released on Friday, is expected to show the unemployment rate holding at a 16-year low of 4.3%.
While the devastation from Hurricane Harvey is likely to hurt the economy along the Texas Gulf Coast, economists don’t expect the impact on the U.S. as a whole to be drastic.
“Overall the U.S. economy and labor market remain in good shape, and will easily withstand any temporary drag from Harvey,” Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial, wrote in a report on Wednesday.
