The Commerce Department released on Thursday its "advance" estimate for the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2019, which revealed the U.S. economy grew as expected in the reviewed period.

According to the estimate, the U.S. real GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.1 percent q-o-q last quarter, the same pace as in the third quarter.

Economists had expected GDP to boost by 2.1 percent.

According to the report, the gain in real GDP in the fourth quarter reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), federal government spending, state and local government spending, residential fixed investment, and exports, that were partly offset by negative contributions from private inventory investment and nonresidential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, fell.

At the same time, the real GDP growth in the fourth quarter was the same as that in the third as a downturn in imports, an acceleration in government spending, and a smaller drop in nonresidential investment were offset by a larger decline in private inventory investment and a slowdown in PCE.

The report also revealed U.S. GDP grew 2.3 percent in 2019 y-o-y in 2019, compared with an increase of 2.9 percent in 2018.

The gain in real GDP in 2019 reflected positive contributions from PCE, nonresidential fixed investment, federal government spending, state and local government spending, and private inventory investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from residential fixed investment. Meanwhile, the deceleration in real GDP in 2019, compared to 2018, primarily reflected decelerations in nonresidential fixed investment and PCE and a downturn in exports, which were partly offset by accelerations in both state and local and federal government spending.