WASHINGTON, July 27: US economic growth slowed in the second quarter as consumers spent at their slowest pace in a year, increasing pressure on policymakers to do more to bolster the recovery.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.5 per cent annual rate between April and June, the weakest pace of growth since the third quarter of 2011, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

First-quarter growth was revised up by a tenth of a per cent to a 2.0 per cent pace.

Details of the report were weak. That, together with signs that activity slowed further early in the third quarter strengthens the argument for the Federal Reserve to offer the economy additional stimulus at its September meeting.

“The economy has lost altitude and flying pretty close to stall speed. Monetary policy is the only game in town and additional easing is highly likely,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, California.

The ailing economy could cost President Barack Obama a second term in office when Americans vote in November. Obama's approval rating on his handling of the economy is slipping.

A CBS News/New York Times poll published last week showed 39 per cent of respondents approved of Obama's economic leadership while 55 per cent disapproved. That represented a worsening from April, when 44 per cent approved of the president's economic stewardship while 48 per cent disapproved.

The expansion following the 2007-09 recession is the slowest since the 1980-81 period and the recession itself was the deepest in the post-war period.

No major policy announcement is expected at the Fed's two-day meeting next week, but many economists now say the central bank could launch a third round of bond purchases, also known as quantitative easing, when policymakers gather on September 12-13.—Reuters