Modest Growth Path
Economy enters ninth year of expansion, growing at a 2.6% annual rate in the second quarter
The U.S. emerged from recession in mid-2009. Since then, GDP growth has averaged 2.1%. In contrast, growth averaged 3.6% during a 10-year span in the 1990s and 4.9% during a nearly nine-year stretch in the 1960s, the only two expansions with longer durations.
Slow and steady has produced a long stretch of job creation and left the economy on mostly stable footing, with few signs of the kind of excess that in the past have derailed long periods of growth.
