GDP and the Economy, May 2011: “Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 1.8 percent at an annual rate in the first quarter of 2011, according to the advance estimates of the national income and product accounts (NIPAs). In the fourth quarter of 2010, real GDP increased 3.1 percent. The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a sharp upturn in imports, a deceleration in consumer spending, 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.”