WASHINGTON, Oct 28: The US economy grew at a 3.8 per cent rate in the third quarter, according to figures released on Friday that surpassed expectations in a period that saw powerful hurricanes batter the US oil industry.

Wall Street was expecting gross domestic product in the world’s biggest economy to expand by 3.6pc in the July-September period, against 3.3 per cent in the previous quarter.

The economy appears to have weathered the impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which shut down much of US oil drilling and refining capacity when they swept through the southern United States in late August and September.

But analysts, noting that the Commerce Department GDP release is only a preliminary figure, say that most of the hurricanes’ effects will only come in fuller data for the month of September.

The Commerce Department is set to release a more comprehensive GDP report for the third quarter on November 30.

“The encouraging news is that we still don’t have any evidence that higher energy prices are spilling over into other products,” Nomura chief economist David Resler said.

“There’s a good bit of momentum in the economy, but we’re going to have to wait for the monthly consumer spending figures and (GDP) revisions to know more,” he said.

“There was no mention of the hurricanes’ impact in this release, and my suspicion is that it may have been reflected in the inventory numbers. But much of this release is based on assumptions for September.”—AFP