Growth in U.S. Slows as Consumers Restrain Spending

The world’s largest economy cooled in the second quarter as limited job growth prompted Americans to curb spending while state and local governments cut back.

Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose at a 1.5 percent annual rate after a revised 2 percent gain in the prior quarter, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. Household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of GDP, grew at the slowest pace in a year.