gross domestic product a measure of all goods and services produced during the apriltojune period accelerated 65 on an annualized basis that was slightly better than the 63 gain in the first quarter which was revised down narrowly the us economy rose at a disappointing rate in the second quarter the commerce department reported thursday in a sign that the us has escaped the shackles of the covid19 pandemic but still has more work to do while that would have been strong prior to the pandemic the gain was considerably less than the 84 dow jones estimate gross private domestic investment fell 35 as declines in private inventory and residential investment held back gains rising imports and a 5 decline in the rate of federal government spending despite the ballooning budget deficit also were factors the bureau of economic analysis report said the overall increase came thanks to increasing personal expenditures which rose 118 as consumers accounted for 69 of all activity nonresidential fixed investment exports and state and local government spending also helped boost output the personal savings rate dropped sharply tumbling to 197 trillion from 41 trillion in the previous period the headline gain was a yardstick for how far the economy has come from the shutdowns imposed during the early days of the pandemic when governments across the country halted large swaths of economic activity to combat covid at its nadir the economy collapsed 314 in the second quarter of 2020 it bounced back 334 in the subsequent threemonth period and has continued to push toward normal since in the years prior to the pandemic the q2 gain would have been the strongest since the third quarter of 2003 though output has remained below its prepandemic level the national bureau of economic research pronounced the recession that began in february 2020 to have ended just two months later the shortest on record however the second quarter is likely to be the high point of the pandemic recovery the good news is that the economy has now surpassed its prepandemic level wrote paul ashworth chief us economist at capital economics but with the impact from the fiscal stimulus waning surging prices weakening purchasing power the delta variant running amok in the south and the saving rate lower than we thought we expect gdp growth to slow to 35 annualized in the second half of this year still areas of the economy remain underwater as the labor market in particular has struggled to get back to normal in a separate report thursday the labor department said 400000 people filed initial claims for unemployment benefits for the week ended july 24 that level is nearly double the prepandemic norm and was above the 380000 dow jones estimate however it was a decrease from the previous weeks 424000 continuing claims edged higher to 327 million according to data that runs a week behind the headline number the total of those receiving benefits rose by nearly 600000 to 1316 million according to data through july 10 correction the annualized gain in gdp was misstated in one summary it was 65 also the personal savings rate dropped to 197 trillion