HERE COMES GDP...
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The U.S. GDP growth rate for Q1 is expected to be revised down to -1.8% from last month's estimate of -1.0%. This is according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.This would be the third estimate for GDP growth, which will be published in the BEA's report at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The big driver of the downward revision is expected to be from healthcare spending. Here's Morgan Stanley's Ted Wieseman with more color:
Data released since the first revision to Q1 GDP growth to -1.0% from +0.1% point to a significantly lower number again. Indeed, Q1 looks to have been the worst quarter outside of an actual recession on record by a wide margin. BEA had been assuming strong growth in healthcare spending based on significant expansion of insurance coverage this year under Medicaid and insurance exchanges, but the Census Bureau's quarterly services report instead showed a pullback in healthcare spending after strong growth in Q4, and BEA's incorporation of the Census Bureau data should account for most of a cut in consumption growth to 2.1% from 3.1%. The other big expected revision is to trade. Annual revisions pointed to the Q1 net exports contribution being revised down to -1.5pp from -1.0pp, we estimate.
Keep in mind that this is for a quarter that ended in March, which means it won't tell us too much about the current state of the economy.
We'll cover the report live in this post.