Today’s high interest rates on all kinds of loans aren’t slowing down the economy quite as much as economists have expected.

The inflation-adjusted Gross Domestic Product, a measure of U.S. economic growth, slowed to an annual rate of 3.3% in the fourth quarter, down from a 4.9% rate in the third, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said in an advance estimate Thursday. The slowdown was less than the drop to 2% forecasters had expected, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal.

The GDP data shows that while all kinds of economic activity is decelerating after the Federal Reserve deliberately tapped on the brakes, it still has quite a bit of momentum. Starting in March 2022, the central bank steadily raised its benchmark interest rate from near-zero to a 22-year high in July, pushing up interest rates on mortgages, credit cards, and business loans to discourage borrowing and spending and quash the highest inflation in decades.

Inflation has come down to a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:3.4% annual rate, as measured by the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Consumer Price Index, from its 9.1% recent peak without—a least so far—causing the recession and mass layoffs that had been widely predicted. The fact that the economy was still growing is a sign that it’s headed for a “soft landing” from its bout of high interest rates, rather than the crash that many had been bracing for. 

Consumer spending, the main engine of the U.S. economy, continued to grow at a 2.8% clip, although down from the 3.1% of the third quarter, highlighting how much shoppers have managed to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩♎网:ke✤ep spending despite high borrowing costs.

A slowing economy could encourage the Fed to back off its high interest rates. Markets are pricing in a 44% chance the Fed will start cutting the fed funds rate at its meeting in March, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts Fed rate moves based on fed funds futures trading data.