Consumers who are worried about potential damage done to their credit report as they try to make their payments any way possible may be heartened by an upward revision of the Gross Domestic Product during the fourth quarter of 2009.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the real gross domestic product was upwardly revised by 0.2 percentage points, or by about $6.1 billion, to 5.9 percent in a revision released on Friday.
The increase in the Q4 2009 GDP since its initial estimate of 5.7 percent was released last month was attributed primarily to increased contributions from private inventory investments, exports, nonresidential fixed income, and personal consumption expenditures.
Additionally, the rate of imports, which can lead to a decline in the overall GDP, increased as well. The BEA data also found that the price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures the prices paid by residents for goods, had been downwardly revised by 0.2 percentage points to a 1.9 percent increase in Q4 2009. Nonetheless, the increase still outdid the 1.3 percent increase seen in the third quarter.
Real exports of goods and services were also found to have increased 22.4 percent in the fourth quarter, as opposed to the 17.8 percent increase seen in 2009's third quarter.