Better than expected. 
Welcome to the Know the Difference Minute for Thursday, October 27th.
After back-to-back negative quarters, 3rd Quarter GDP came in 2.6%, slightly higher than the forecast. 
The commonly accepted definition of a recession is two back-to-back negative quarters---and we saw that. But there were other signs like low unemployment and decent earnings. The National Bureau of Economic Research will eventually make the official call. 
Overall consumer spending was up, driven by services while spending on goods dropped. Higher interest rates are expected to negatively affect consumer demand heading into 2023. We’re seeing that with PCE, or personal consumption expenditures which have softened from the 2nd quarter.  
Exports get the assist—but most economists don’t expect a repeat. Net exports of goods and services added 2.77 percentage points to the headline total, meaning GDP essentially would have been flat otherwise.
I’m Dave Spano from Annex Wealth Management.  That is your Know the Difference Minute.