GDP Revised Lower

The pace of economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2006 was revised downward Wednesday, but the new figure was in line with what analysts had been expecting.

The Commerce Department said gross domestic product grew at a 2.2% annual pace in the last three months of the year, down from the initial estimate of 3.5%. The final figure will be released in March.

Real GDP measures the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S. In the third quarter, GDP rose 2%.

Contributing to the increase in GDP were positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, exports, state and local government spending and federal government spending.

Partly offsetting those factors were negative contributions from private inventory investment and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, declined.