Final 3Q GDP indicates economy limped out of recession

Gross Domestic Product - commonly referred to as GDP - is the broadest view of economic activity and is among the more complex pieces of economic data that the government releases each quarter simply because it covers so much territory.

That is the reason we have three separate releases - advance, preliminary, and final - from the government.

The final release for 3Q, which came out today, showed that GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.2%, down from the initial estimate of 3.5, and the downwardly revised gain of 2.8%.

It's a little discouraging to the downward revisions chip away at early gains, but the data are old (4Q ends in about one week) and most economic reports suggest that we'll see the economy continue to expand when the final quarter's advance report is released at the end of January.