IPhone 5 Sales Could Offer Big Boost to GDP

The iPhone 5, which Apple Inc. plans to release this week, could get credit for something Congress, the White House and Federal Reserve have struggled to do: boost the U.S. economy in a measurable way., according to a WSJ blog.

Sales of the new iPhone could add between a quarter and half a percentage point to annualized economic growth in the fourth quarterJ.P. Morgan JPM -1.37%’s chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli estimates. That could help to cushion the U.S. economy from other risks in the final months of the year.

The bottom line: The new iPhone sales could boost GDP by $3.2 billion in the fourth quarter, or $12.8 billion at an annual rate. That is an increase of 0.33 percentage point in the annualized rate of GDP growth. It could be even higher, he says. Even a third of a percentage point would limit the downside risk to J.P. Morgan’s fourth-quarter growth projection of 2%......

Wait...wait...there's more at http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/09/10/iphone-5-sales-could-offer-big-boost-to-gdp/