Try to follow me here -
The source of the article is the lying LA Times who you can’t trust. They MAY have correctly cited the correct government number (there are LOTS of government reports and numbers). So they MAY have correctly applied a referenced fact.
BUT, even if they referenced a fact correctly, their HEADLINE, ANALYSIS and EVALUATION of that fact will be Leftist and if not a lie, very questionable. That’s called a half truth (Satan’s MO). A half-truth is a lie.
My Point: Why not get the true fact AND the RELIABLE analysis and evaluation from a source we know to be at least reasonably reliable?
I have no issues with you regarding their analysis. There are too many factors that affect our GDP.
However, the fact is still something we cannot avoid — the GDP for 2017 was 2.6% officially.
Whether that figure is accurate or not is subject to discussion. However, we cannot say that they did not cite their source.