The Commerce Department reported that real gross domestic product (the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States)increased 2.2% in Q1/12, after increasing 3.0% in Q4/11, according to the advance estimates by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Equipment and software investment increased 1.7%, compared with an increase of
7.5% in Q4/11.

According to the BEA’s news release, the increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending, nonresidential fixed investment and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in private inventory investment and a downturn in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by accelerations in PCE and in exports, the BEA said.

To read the full BEA news release click here.