US economic growth was much weaker than previously estimated in the second quarter as a drought cut into inventories.
This sets the platform for an even more sluggish performance in the current quarter against the backdrop of slowing factory activity.
Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.3% annual rate.
This was the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2011 and down from last month's 1.7% estimate, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate today.
Output was also revised down to reflect weaker rates of consumer and business spending than previously estimated.
Outlays on residential construction export growth were also not as robust as had been previously estimated.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected second-quarter GDP growth would be unrevised at a 1.7% pace.
The economy grew at a 2.0% pace in the January-March period.
The worst drought in half a century, which gripped large parts of the country in the summer, saw farm inventories dropping $5.3 billion in the second quarter after slipping $1 billion in the first three months of the year.
Data in hand for the third-quarter suggest little improvement in the growth pace, even as the housing market digs out of a six-year slump.
Manufacturing, the pillar of the recovery from the 2007-09 recession is cooling, hurt by fears of tighter US fiscal policy in January and slower global demand.
The GDP report also showed that after-tax corporate profits unexpectedly rose at a 2.2% rate instead of the previously reported 1.1% increase. After-tax profits fell 8.6% in the first quarter.
US durable orders fall, but business investment up
Demand for long-lasting US manufactured goods plunged in August because of a huge drop in volatile commercial aircraft orders. But in a hopeful sign, orders that reflect business investment plans rose solidly.
The Commerce Department says total durable goods orders fell 13.2% in August, the biggest drop since January 2009 when the country was in recession. Aircraft orders fell by 101%.
Business orders for machinery, electronics and other equipment, which are a good indication of their investment plans, rose 1.1%. That is the first increase since May.
The overall drop in August put total orders at $198.5 billion, 33.5% above the recession low hit in April 2009.
But manufacturing has been weakening in recent months, along with the broader economy.
