Economy Growth Suffers From Energy Prices

The rising of oil and gasoline prices significantly lessened consumer and corporate spending in the first quarter.

As a result, the U.S. economy’s growth rate slowed to its slowest in two years, 3.1%.

Mercury News says:

Wall Street shuddered. The Dow Jones industrial index plunged 128.43 points, or 1.3 percent, to close at 10,070.37. Nasdaq’s tech-heavy index sank 26.25 points to 1,904.08, off 1.4 percent, and the broad S&P 500 index dropped 13.16 points, or 1.1 percent, to close at 1,143.22.

In addition to the slower growth, perhaps equally worrisome was a GDP core-inflation index that showed first-quarter prices surging by a 2.2 percent annual rate, up sharply from the 1.7 percent rate of the previous quarter and the fastest pace in more than three years.

Federal Reserve policymakers will meet Tuesday to discuss interest-rate strategy.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.