US economic growth slowed to 2.8 per cent in the last quarter of 2010, the Commerce Department said on Friday, a pace that was slower than first thought.

The growth rate for the last three months of the year was revised down from 3.2 per cent, as lower government spending and inventory investment bit into the recovery.

The slowdown came despite fewer imports - which subtract from gross domestic product - and higher consumer spending.

"Real personal consumption expenditures increased 4.1 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 per cent in the third," the department said.

For the whole of 2010, the economy grew 2.8 per cent versus the 2.9 per cent rate previously reported.

Although the figures were worse than economists expected, they depicted an economy that was in much better shape than the year before, when the country was still reeling from the financial crisis.

channelnewsasia.com