The US economy rebounded in Q1 following a slowdown associated with the prior quarter’s government shutdown, the BEA confirmed on Thursday.

The advance read on GDP growth for 2026’s first three months reflected a 2% annual pace, slightly below the 2.2% clip economists saw, but respectable all the same.

Personal consumption grew 1.6%, a deceleration from the prior quarter’s 1.9% gain and the slowest in a year, but still better than economists expected. The key “final sales to private domestic purchasers” line showed a 2.5% advance, up meaningfully from Q4’s print.

The simplest of simple figures is a reminder: The US economy really hasn’t quit since bouncing back from the pandemic. The two low prints from Trump’s second-term (Q4 2025 and Q1 2025) were self-inflicted wounds.

Nonresidential fixed investment — i.e., business spending — was quite robust in Q1, Thursday’s released suggested.

As the figure below shows, the 10.4% growth rate was the strongest since Q2 2023.

That’s presumably attributable to the AI buildout. Data released on Wednesday showed orders for business equipment rose the most in March since mid-2020.

Within nonresidential fixed investment, spending on equipment showed a 17.2% advance and IP products a 13% gain.

The figure below shows you the breakdown by contribution. Net trade was the only drag.

Both personal consumption and investment chipped in more than 1ppt.

On the prices front, the GDP price index slipped to 3.6%, undershooting consensus, but core PCE rose 4.3% in Q1, the fastest in three years and two-tenths ahead of expectations.

As for the March breakout, released simultaneously with the GDP figures, headline PCE price growth accelerated to 0.7% last month on the energy shock.

But core PCE came in relatively tame, at 0.293% unrounded. That was in-line with estimates.

The YoY print was an as-expected 3.2%, the fastest in over two years. Note that the MoM reading counted as the slowest since November.

As for consumption, personal spending rose 0.9% in March from February, again on the energy impact. Real personal spending expanded a far less impressive 0.2%, undershooting the 0.3% consensus.

All in all, Thursday’s top-tier data from the BEA contained few, if any, surprises. The US economy’s doing ok, inflation’s uncomfortably high, business spending’s on the upswing and it’s still too early to assess the fallout from the war.