When people say he inherited the economy, what they mean is the **rate** of change stayed the same. Of course the static snapshot isn't the same, Tha would be ridiculous.

As far as the over 3% annual GDP rate goes, I have no clue wtf you're talking about. A simple Google search shows 2017 had a 2.2% growth and 2018 had a 2.9% growth, unless you're arbitrarily choosing a 1 year span of time that is most favorable.