The spread between the Atlanta Fed GDPNow model and the New York Fed Nowcast model narrowed a bit today. About one percentage point separates the models.

GDPNow Forecast: 3.2 percent — September 1, 2017

The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2017 is 3.2 percent on September 1, down from 3.3 percent on August 31. The forecasts of third-quarter real consumer spending and nonresidential equipment investment growth increased from 2.8 percent and 6.1 percent to 3.0 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively, after this morning's Manufacturing ISM Report On business from the Institute for Supply Management and the employment report from the u.s. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The model's estimate of the dynamic factor for August—normalized to have mean 0 and standard deviation 1 and used to forecast the yet-to-be released monthly GDP source data—increased from 0.11 to 0.41 after the reports. These increases were more than offset by declines in the forecasted growth rates of real government spending and real nonresidential structures investment from 0.2 percent and 2.6 percent to -0.7 percent and -3.3 percent, respectively, after the employment report and this morning's construction spending release from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nowcast forecast: 2.2 percent — September 1, 2017

Key Points