Growth Put At 3.5% in 3rd Quarter: Inflation Rate Cut, Output Gain ...
The nationÛªs economy grew substan-" tially more rapidly last quarter than? had been estimated previously, while* inflation was not quite so virulent, thej government reported yesterday. * Meanwhile, corporate _ profits re-J bounded.	f</br></br>Revised figures on the gross na-åÈ tional product showed the economyÛªs!; total output, adjusted for inflation,åÈ rose at a respectable annual rate of ; 3.5 percent between July and Septem-; ber, not 2.4 percent as reported be-1 fore.	*</br></br>At the same time, the GNP price in-C dex, the' governmentÛªs most compre-' hensive measure of inflation, showedåÇ prices climbed at an 8 percent annual J rate over the quarter rather than 8.4åÇ percent, as estimated earlier.	*</br></br>The report on corporate profits * showed before-tax earnings of Amen-1 can firms up 6.4 percent in the third å¨ quarter, reversing a 2.3 percent decline during the April-June period. Af- -ter-tax profits jumped 6.2 percent. I However, a substantial portion of, the third-quarter rise stemmed from. sharply higher foreign earnings by J U.S. oil companies and banks rather * than from any general rebound among domestic operations.	*</br></br>Although profits from domestic ven-* tures fared relatively robustly in theÛª trade and refining industries, earn-, ings of the major automakers plunged' sharply, and profits in other indus-Û¢ tries were lackluster.	.!