US real gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 1.4% in the second quarter, according to the third estimate of GDP growth released by the US Commerce Department. The new estimate is up from the second estimate, which pegged growth at 1.1%.

In the first quarter, real GDP edged up 0.8%.

Business investment was still soft in the April-to-June period, but the weakness was less pronounced, MarketWatch reported, noting this could be a good harbinger for the just-about-to-end third quarter, whose rate of growth appears to have been much stronger. Economists polled by MarketWatch estimate growth will climb to a 3% pace in the third quarter. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow forecast — which is based on a model tied to economic indicators — calls for 2.8% growth.

Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, also commented on the GDP number in a blog post.

“Second-quarter economic growth was revised to 1.4% at an annual rate in the third estimate, up 0.3 percentage point from the second estimate,” Furman wrote. “Consumer spending grew strongly at 4.3% in the second quarter — its second-fastest quarterly growth since 2006 — and, in contrast to recent quarters, net exports and business fixed investment also added to GDP growth. Some of this growth was offset by a large decline in inventory investment (one of the most volatile components of GDP), along with declines in residential investment and government spending. Overall, growth in the most stable and persistent components of output — consumption and fixed investment — was revised up to 3.2%.”