The Commerce Department reported on Thursday that its the "third" estimate revealed the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a 3.1 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2019, unchanged from the "second" estimate issued last month.

Economists had expected the growth rate to be unrevised at 3.1 percent.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, the economy expanded by 2.2 percent.

The increase in real GDP in the first quarter reflected positive contributions from exports, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), nonresidential fixed investment, private inventory investment, and state and local government spending that were slightly offset by a negative contribution from residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, declined.

Meanwhile, the acceleration in real GDP in the first quarter reflected an upturn in state and local government spending and accelerations in private inventory investment and in exports. These movements, however, were partly offset by a deceleration in PCE. Imports decreased in the first quarter after increasing in the fourth quarter.