THE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT of the nation grew 4.1 percent for the second quarter of 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced on Friday (Pexels photo).

The gross domestic product of the United States grew by a rapid 4.1 percent in the second quarter of 2018, the Department of Commerce announced on Friday. That’s the strongest quarter of economic growth in almost four years.

Strong consumer and domestic spending helped spur the jump, up from a 2.2 percent hike in the GDP for the first quarter of the year. Another factor was an increase in exports before expected retaliatory tariffs from China take effect.

The last quarterly increase of over 4 percent came in 2014 when there was a 4.9 percent rise.

“We’re on track to hit the highest annual growth rate in over 13 years,” President Donald Trump said in remarks after the report was made. “And I will say this right now and I will say it strongly, as the deals come in one by one, we’re going to go a lot higher than these numbers, and these are great numbers.”

The gross domestic project is an estimate of the value of all goods and services produced over a set amount of time.