The US economy grew at an annualised rate of 2% in the July-to-September period, an acceleration¹ on the previous quarter, official figures have shown.

官方统计数据显示，美国第三季度经济增长2%，比第二季度有所增长。

The expansion came despite continuing high unemployment and weakness in the housing market.

The 2% figure is an improvement on the upwardly（向上地） revised 1.7% increase between April and June, but less than the 3.7% growth recorded from January to March.

The Federal Reserve suggested last week it would do more to boost the economy.

To do this, the Fed - the US central bank - is expected to announce next month that it will resume quantitative² easing（量化宽松） - injecting fresh money into the economy through the purchase of government bonds.

Compared with the preceding quarter, the US economy grew by 0.5% between July and September.

The economy is continuing to experience a slow recovery by historical standards, with the unemployment rate at 9.6% and Americans increasingly nervous about the future.

This is expected to manifest（证明，显示） itself in big losses for President Barack Obama's Democratic Party in Tuesday's congressional elections, which are being seen as a vote on his economic performance.

'Disappointing'

The Commerce Department's figures showed that businesses building up their inventories³（存货） - stocks of goods and materials - contributed most of the US economic expansion during the third quarter.

The growth in business inventories made up more than two-thirds of the 2% annualised（年度的） expansion in the economy.

However, consumer spending also increased, despite continuing high US unemployment.

Consumer spending rose 2.6% during the third quarter, up from 2.2% in the second.

"[Economic] growth is still positive, but a bit disappointing," said Scott Brown, chief economist⁴ at Raymond James & Associates.

"It's not where we would like it to be at this point of the recovery."