The US economy expanded at a healthy annual 2.4 per cent pace the last three months of 2024, supported by a year-end surge in consumer spending, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade of its previous estimate of fourth-quarter growth. But it's unclear whether the United States can sustain solid growth as President Donald Trump wages trade wars, purges the federal workforce and promises mass deportations of immigrants working in the country illegally. The Commerce Department said that growth in gross domestic product the nation's output of goods and services decelerated from a 3.1 per cent pace in July-September 2024.