Manufacturing Leading the Way
According to new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, manufacturing added 0.60 percentage points to top-line growth in the fourth quarter, with 0.44 and 0.16 percentage points from durable and nondurable goods businesses, respectively.
Real value-added output jumped 5.3 percent for manufacturers in the fourth quarter, buoyed by a 7.2 percent growth rate for durable goods firms. Real value-added output for nondurable goods bounced back from a hurricane-induced decline in the third quarter to a 3.1 percent increase in the fourth quarter.