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By Jeffry Bartash, Market Watch–

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A fresh look at the economy’s performance in the spring shows business investment wasn’t nearly as weak as previously reported, prompting the government to ratchet up its estimate of growth by several notches to 1.4%.

The government last month had said gross domestic product grew at a 1.1% pace in the second quarter.

Although business investment was still soft in the April-to-June period, the weakness was less pronounced, revised figures show. That could be a good harbinger for the just-about-to-end third quarter whose rate of growth appears to have been much stronger.

After a surprisingly slow first half of 2016 marked by a dropoff in production, the economy is showing more vigor. Economists polled by MarketWatch estimate growth will climb to a 3% pace in the third quarter. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow forecast — which is based on a model tied to economic indicators — calls for 2.8% growth.

Consumers are still spending at a healthy clip and the housing market continues to get stronger, offsetting soft business investment as well as weakness among manufacturers and exporters.

“Based on incoming data, growth is poised to rebound in the second half of the year,” said Loretta Mester, president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve, in a speech Wednesday.

As a result, senior Fed officials think the economy is strong enough to warrant an increase in U.S. interest rates before year end despite low inflation.

Business not all that bad
In the second quarter, business spending on equipment fell 2.1% instead of 8.4%, according to new Commerce Department data. And investment in structures such as buildings or drilling platforms actually rose 1% instead of dropping 0.9%.

Exports also rose a faster 1.8% vs. a prior estimate of 1.2%, the government said Thursday. Imports edged up 0.2%, little changed from the previous estimate. A smaller trade deficit adds to GDP.

Consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy, climbed 4.3%, a tick lower than previously reported. Strong consumer spending has kept the economy churning forward despite lackluster business investment.

Most of the rest of the figures in the government’s third look at GDP were little changed. GDP is basically a sum of a nation’s economy, or a report card on how it’s doing.