GNP Grows At 2.6% Rate In 2nd Quarter
The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said yesterday, indicating the expansion has enough steam to reach its fifth birthday this fall and become the second-longest in four decades.</br></br>The report led Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige to predict that the administration's forecast of 3.2 percent inflation-adjusted growth for all of 1987 "surely" was attainable.</br></br>The economy grew at an annualized 4.4 percent rate in the first three months of the year, according to newly revised figures for the gross national product. Its pace for the first half was a 3.5 percent rate.</br></br>"The economy's performance during the first half of the year suggests that we can achieve 3 percent growth over four quarters of 1987," Baldrige said. "Conditions are favorable for growth during the second half."</br></br>New statistical revisions also released yesterday by Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that the economy grew faster in 1984, 1985 and 1986 than had been previously reported. The stronger growth was fueled almost entirely by higher consumer spending, while business investment was lower than earlier thought. {Details on Page D10.}