A report from the Commerce Department showed on Wednesday that the U.S. economy expanded as initially estimated in the third quarter of 2020, as upward revisions to nonresidential fixed investment, residential investment, and exports were offset by downward revisions to state and local government spending, private inventory investment, and personal consumption expenditures (PCE). At the same time, imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, were revised up.

According to the “second” estimate, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of 33.1 percent in the third quarter, as it was reported in the “advance” estimate. This was the biggest expansion ever.

Economists had expected the contraction rate to be revised up to 33.2 percent.

In the second quarter, the economy plunged by record 31.4 percent q-o-q.

The increase in real GDP reflected advances in PCE, private inventory investment, exports, nonresidential fixed investment, and residential fixed investment, which, however, were partly offset by declines in federal government spending (reflecting fewer fees paid to administer the Paycheck Protection Program loans) and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, rose.