US real gross domestic product grew faster than anticipated, increasing at an annual rate of 2.4% in the second quarter of 2023, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported today. This is an advance estimate. Real GDP had grown 2.0% in the first quarter.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast growth of only 1.8% in the second quarter, Yahoo Finance reported.

Despite the better-than-expected second-quarter growth, The Conference Board still foresees a mild recession, according to a post by Erik Lundh, principal economist at The Conference Board. Still, the organization pushed out the forecast date for the recession to the fourth quarter of this year.

“Consumption growth cooled for the quarter, but improvements in business investment growth more than offset this,” Lundh wrote in the post. “The prospects for a soft landing for the US economy are rising, but The Conference Board projects that a short and shallow recession beginning later this year is more likely.”

According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysts, the second-quarter increase in real GDP “reflected increases in consumer spending, nonresidential fixed investment, state and local government spending, private inventory investment and federal government spending that were partly offset by decreases in exports and residential fixed investment.”

Separately, the US initial jobless claims last week fell to their lowest level in five months, the US Department of Labor reported today.

Initial jobless claims fell by 7,000 in the week ended July 22 to a total of 221,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of initial claims fell by 3,750 to a level of 233,750.

In other economic news, the Federal Reserve raised its target range for its benchmark interest rate by on Wednesday to a range of 5.25% to 5.5%, CNBC reported.