WASHINGTON -- The US economic growth in the first quarter of 2019 was revised down to an annual rate of 3.1 percent, from the previously reported 3.2 percent, the US Commerce Department said Thursday in its second estimate.

The update to the gross domestic product (GDP) growth reflected downward revisions to business investment and inventory investment and an upward revision to imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, the department said, adding that these revisions were partly offset by upward revisions to exports and consumer spending.

Nonresidential fixed investment in the first quarter was revised down to an annual rate of 2.3 percent, from the previous estimate of 2.7 percent, the department said. It rose by 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Growth in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic output, was revised up to 1.3 percent, from 1.2 percent in a previous estimate. Consumer spending grew by 2.5 percent in the previous quarter.

In its latest economic projections released in March, the Federal Reserve cut its forecast of the US economic growth for 2019 and 2020, expecting a rate of 2.1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.