Commerce Dept. To Report 4Q GDP Results On Feb. 28

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will publish its advance fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) report at the end of February.

The report was supposed to be released on Jan. 30 but was delayed because of the government shutdown that ended on Jan. 25. Now, the “Initial Gross Domestic Product for the 4th Quarter and Annual 2018” will finally be released on Feb. 28 at 8:30 a.m.

“The combined Feb. 28 report will contain one set of GDP numbers based on the data available from BEA’s data suppliers, including the U.S. Census Bureau, which also was affected by the funding lapse. This will include source data that would have gone into producing BEA’s advance estimate of fourth-quarter and annual GDP for 2018, and some — but not all — of the source data that typically feed the second estimate,” the agency said in a press release.

BEA usually creates three estimates of GDP for a given quarter, with each one including more complete data as it becomes available. The agency revealed that this cycle will be condensed to two estimates for the fourth quarter and annual estimates of 2018. The other fourth-quarter estimate is still scheduled for March 28.

Additionally, the Census Bureau announced updates to the 2019 economic indicator release schedule, revealing that it would publish December’s retail sales report on Feb. 14, and that the durable goods report for December will be released on Feb. 21.

In addition, new residential construction data for December will be released on Feb. 26, while December new home sales data will be made public on March 5. The December report on international trade in goods and services will be published on March 4.

The Census Bureau will also release its December advance economic indicators and December factory orders data on Feb. 27, followed by December business inventories on March 11 and the quarterly services survey for the October-December period on March 21.