The US closed out 2022 with its economy still growing despite recession fears

• US gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
• That follows the third quarter's growth of 3.2% and beats a forecast from economists.

The US ended 2022 with a robust quarter of economic growth.

Data out Thursday from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that the economy saw a second consecutive quarter of growth. The US economy's gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the advance estimate. That's slightly above the forecast of 2.6% from economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

The fourth quarter print means that the US economy saw a small slow down from the third quarter's annual rate of 3.2%. While the US closed out 2022 with GDP rising, GDP shrunk in the first two quarters of 2022.

Imports and exports both fell in the last quarter of 2022, with seasonally adjusted annual rates of -4.6% and -1.3% respectively. The fourth quarter print is good news for those who think a recession can be avoided, which some experts believe could be the case.

The US saw inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index slow month after month, based on year-over-year changes, in the months part of the last quarter of the year. And annualized three-month changes shows that inflation could actually be slowing down even faster.

Overall, GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.1% in 2022, which is much lower than the economic growth from a year prior. GDP climbed at an annual rate of 5.9% in 2021.

Different areas of the economy contributed to the positive growth in 2022, including consumer spending.

"The increase in real GDP in 2022 primarily reflected increases in consumer spending, exports, private inventory investment, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by decreases in residential fixed investment and federal government spending. Imports increased," Thursday's release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis stated.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.