Gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2017 rose 2.6 percent on an annualized basis, compared to 3.2 percent in the third quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The rate of economic growth for the 2017 calendar year was 2.3 percent, compared to 1.5 percent in 2016. Several components of GDP were particularly strong […]

There’s some big money news out of Norway today. Population: a bit over five million. Money in the country’s sovereign wealth fund: at least a trillion dollars as of today, according to Norway’s central bank. That’s more than two and a half times Norway’s GDP or about $188,000 for every Norwegian citizen. This fund is […]

The gross domestic product of South Africa, one of Africa’s largest economies, contracted nearly a full percent between the last quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of this year. Some  blame President Jacob Zuma for the country’s lackluster performance. Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

Today’s report of a tepid rise in first-quarter gross domestic product, by 0.7 percent, comes with an asterisk: There appears to be a recurrent pattern of low growth in first-quarter GDP going back years. Some economists argue it goes back decades. That’s thanks to something economists call “residual seasonality” — recurrent seasonal patterns in the […]