August 20, 2008


The trade sector kept the economy going during the second quarter. The combination of brisk export growth and a drop in imports added 2.4 percentage points to the advance in real GDP. Moreover, the monthly trade report for June was firm, suggesting an upward revision to the initial estimate of net exports in the second quarter and an even larger contribution to economic growth. Indeed, revised figures are likely to show that net exports added more than three percentage points to the increase in GDP in Q2.