A report from the Commerce Department showed on Thursday that the U.S. economy grew as initially estimated in the first quarter of 2021, as upward revisions to nonresidential fixed investment, private inventory investment, and exports were offset by an upward revision to imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP.

According to the third estimate, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 6.4 percent in the first quarter, as it was reported in the second estimate.

Economists had expected the growth rate to be unrevised at 6.4 percent.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the economy expanded by 4.3 percent q-o-q.

The increase in real GDP reflected gains in personal consumption expenditures (PCE), nonresidential fixed investment, federal government spending, residential fixed investment, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by declines in private inventory investment and exports. Meanwhile, imports rose.