US fourth-quarter GDP growth revised down to 0.7%

WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - ‌U.S. economic ​growth ​slowed more sharply than initially thought in the fourth quarter amid downward revisions ‌to consumer spending and business investment, government ⁠data showed on Friday.

Gross domestic product increased at a ‌0.7% annualized rate last ‌quarter, revised down from the initially reported 1.4% pace, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis ​said in its second GDP estimate. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP growth ⁠would be unrevised at 1.4%.

The economy grew at a 4.4% pace ​in the third quarter.

Last quarter's growth pace was lowered also because of downgrades to ​government spending, mostly on ‌state and local government structures, and export growth. Last year's record 43-day shutdown ⁠of the government also weighed on GDP growth.

Final sales to private domestic purchases, which excludes government, trade ⁠and inventories, grew at a 1.9% pace. This measure ​of domestic demand, closely watched by policymakers, was initially estimated to have increased at a 2.4% rate. Domestic demand ‌grew at a 2.9% pace in the July-September quarter.

Though a pick up ‌in growth is expected this quarter, the U.S.-Israeli ⁠war with Iran, which ‌has driven up ​oil prices, is clouding the economic outlook.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu ‌Nomiyama)

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