Investing.com – The Federal Reserve of Atlanta cut its forecast for growth in the U.S. economy for the first quarter of 2016 on Friday after the release of the retail sales report by U.S. Census Bureau.
The Atlanta Fed decreased its U.S. Q1 GDP growth estimate to 1.9% from the prior 2.2% forecast published on March 9, effectively undoing the prior increase attributed to the February jobs report.
The regional bank explained the reduction because the forecast for real consumer spending growth was reduced to 2.7%, from the prior 3.3%, due to the data from the retail sales report.