US economic growth soared to an annual pace of 4.9 per cent in the third quarter, the fastest in four years, as exports rose and consumers kept spending before an expected slowdown, the government said Thursday. Economists believe the upswing will fade in the fourth quarter as the deepening US housing market and credit market crisis and rising energy prices pinch consumers, the driving force of the world's largest economy. Growth in US gross domestic product (GDP) in July through September was revised upward from an initial estimate of 3.9 per cent, the US Commerce Department said. In the second quarter, GDP grew at annual rate of 3.8 per cent. Rising US exports fuelled by the weak dollar, consumers and government spending helped drive the third-quarter increase and helped offset a worsening housing-market slump, the report showed. The value of US exports of goods and services surged 19 per cent in the third quarter, compared with an increase of 7.5 per cent in the second. Imports rose 4.3 percent after falling 2.7 per cent, the report said. Private home purchases fell nearly 20 per cent after a 12-per-cent decline in the second quarter. Corporate profits fell by 19 billion dollars, compared to a 95-billion-dollar rise in the three months before. The White House raised its economic growth forecast for all of 2007 to 2.7 per cent, from 2.3 per cent in June. But it lowered the 2008 forecast to 2.7 per cent from 3.1 per cent. Final US third-quarter data are due December 20.
