Real GDP increased 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter:
![](https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/blog_gdp_q4_20181.gif)
For the year, GDP increased 2.9 percent:
![](https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/blog_gdp_2000_2018.gif)
So close! But GDP didn’t quite grow 3 percent as President Trump has been insisting it would. Maybe next year.
Still, not a bad year overall, and not too bad a final quarter. It looks like the Republican tax cut gave the economy a quick boost for a couple of quarters but then petered out. Maybe next time they’ll be more careful to time its benefits for election season.