AlQa'dah 11, 1433, Sep 27, 2012, SPA -- The U.S. economy grew at a weaker pace in the April-June quarter than previously estimated as farm production in the Midwest was reduced by a severe drought, a government report showed on Thursday. The overall economy grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the spring, down from its previous estimate of 1.7 percent growth, the Commerce Department said. The big revision reflected that the government cut its estimate of crop production by $12 billion. About half of the downward revision to growth came from the decline in farm inventories. But other areas were weaker as well including slower consumer spending and less growth in exports. The 1.3 percent growth in the spring followed a weak 2 percent growth rate in the first quarter, rates too slow to lower unemployment. The unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in August. Economists expect it to stay around 8 percent for the rest of this year because they anticipate little strength in growth. Before Thursday's revision in the April-June figures, the consensus view was that the economy expanded in the July-September quarter at a slow pace of between 1.5 percent to 2 percent. They expected the final three months of the year will be about the same. For all of 2011, the economy grew 1.8 percent. The slow growth and anemic job creation prompted the Federal Reserve (Fed) earlier this month to take some dramatic steps in an effort to strengthen activity. The Fed announced it was launching a third round of bond purchases in an effort to push long-term interest rates down further to stimulate home purchases and other economic activity.
