The US economy kicked into high gear in the first three months of the year, quashing fears of a slowdown, the government reported Friday.
The unexpected surge will be welcome news for President Donald Trump, who rattled the economy by shutting down the government for five weeks in December and January in a battle with Democrats over funding for a border wall.
GDP expanded at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the January-March period, smashing economists' expectations and surpassing the 2.2 percent growth in the final quarter of 2018, the Commerce Department said it its initial estimate.
The hotter growth was driven by a dip in imports, a bump in spending by state and local governments, faster inventory building by companies and some recovery in home sales.
And officials said it would likely have been even stronger without the government shutdown because dip in spending by government workers likely shaved 0.3 percentage points off growth in the quarter.
It was the strongest performance for a first quarter in four years, but the growth estimate will be revised in May and June as more data come in.
But the rosy numbers nevertheless came with important signs of weakness.