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

According to the estimate, the U.S. real GDP increased at an annual rate of 3.2 percent q-o-q last quarter, after rising by 2.2 percent q-o-q in the fourth quarter of 2018. 

Economists had expected GDP to boost by 2.0 percent q-o-q. 

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

At the same time, the acceleration in real GDP growth in the first quarter reflected an upturn in state and local government spending, accelerations in private inventory investment and in exports, and a smaller decrease in residential investment which were partly offset by decelerations in PCE and nonresidential fixed investment, and a downturn in federal government spending.