Submitted by CARPE DIEM

WASHINGTON/WSJ — The U.S. economy sped up last summer despite a much heavier drag by the housing sector as surging exports and stronger consumer spending helped turn growth surprisingly faster.

Gross domestic product rose at a seasonally adjusted 3.9% annual rate July through September, the Commerce Department said Wednesday in the first estimate of third-quarter GDP. Second-quarter GDP climbed 3.8% and GDP rose only 0.6% in the first three months of 2007.

Wall Street expected a solid but smaller GDP growth rate. The median estimate of 24 economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires was 3.2% GDP growth during the third quarter.

MP: The solid 3.9% growth in third quarter GDP shows that the U.S. economy remains healthy and continues on a solid expansionary path, as the U.S. economic expansion approaches its 6th anniversary on December 1, 2007.

Consider also that on a two-consecutive-quarter basis, the economic growth hasn’t been this strong since 2003 (see shaded areas on the graph above), and growth in the last two quarters is a full percentage point above the average growth of 2.8% during this economic expansion (started December 2001).