Atlanta Fed raises U.S. fourth-quarter GDP growth view to 2.9 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is on track to grow at a 2.9 percent annualized pace in the fourth quarter following the latest data on inventory, spending, investments and net exports, the Atlanta Federal Reserve's GDP Now forecast model showed on Tuesday.

The latest fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) estimate was higher than the 2.5 percent growth rate calculated on Dec. 22, the Atlanta Fed said on its website.

The forecast of the contribution of inventory investment to fourth-quarter growth increased to 0.73 percentage points from 0.35 percentage points following the U.S. Census Bureau's advance economic indicators release on Dec. 29, the regional central bank said.

On the other hand, it forecast a steeper 0.67 percent drag from net exports on fourth-quarter growth from a previous estimate of 0.25 percentage point based on the same release.

Meanwhile, it raised the estimated contribution to fourth-quarter GDP from consumer and government spending and fixed business investment after the Institute for Supply Management's report on U.S. manufacturing activity in December and the government's November construction spending data released earlier on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

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