U.S. in Weakest Recovery Since '49 - Evpansion falls below expectations: business investment slowdown offsets consumer gain WASHINGTON -- Declining business investment it hobbling an already-sluggish U.S. expansion, raising concern* about the economy's durability as the presidential campaign Scads into its final stretch Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the US. grew at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted annual rate of just 1.2% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday, well below the pace economists expected. Economic growth is now tracking at a 1%, rate in 2016 - the weakest start to a year since 2011 - when combined with a downwardly revised reading for the first quarter. That makes for an annual average rate of 2.1% growth since the end of the recession, the weakest pace of any expansion since at least 1949. The output figures are in some ways discordant with other gauges of the economy. The unemployment rate stands at 4.9% after a streak of strong job gains, wages have begun to pick up and home sales hit a postrecession high last month. Consumer spending also remains strong. Personal consumption, which accounts for nuire than two-thirds of economic output, expanded at a 4.2% rate in the second quarter, the best gain since late 2014. On the downside, the third straight quarter of reduced business investment, a Large paring back of inventories and declining government spending cut into those gains.... High inventories and soft export demand are weighing on United Parcel Service Inc.'s business-to-business shipments, the company told investors Friday. That stands in contrast to a healthy U S consumer market lilting its e-commerce business "Inventories are lingering longer than we thought.* Chief Executive David Abney said Friday "The strength of the U.S. dollar is not really helping us.... Companies also spent less on buildings and equipment this spring. Nonresidential fixed investment, a measure of business spending, declined at a 2.2% pace. That is a concern because capital expenditures are an important ingredient in improving employee productivity, which has grown at an anemic pace in recent years, but is critical to workers' wages and corporate profits. The above article was published in the WSJ in July 2016. At what rate did the U.S. economy grow in the second quanta of 2016? What has been the economy 's annual growth rate since the end of the recession in 2009? What component of GDP dragged down U.S economic growth in the second quarter? What component of GDP remained strong last quarter