By Greg Robb
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. real gross domestic product for the second quarter was revised to a decline of 0.7% annualized from the earlier estimate of a 1.0% drop, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The improvement was unexpected. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected second-quarter growth to be revised to down 1.2%. The revision to second-quarter GDP was largely due to smaller declines in business investment and in exports and an upturn in government spending. On a year-on-year basis, growth is down a record 3.8% in the second quarter. A key measure of inflation was unrevised from the prior estimate of a 2.0% gain. On a year-on-year basis, core inflation rose 1.6%, the slowest pace since the fourth quarter of 2003. Corporate profits increased a revised 3.7% quarter-to-quarter, compared with a 5.7% rise previously estimated.
