in the past hour we have just had an update on some important data. they show the world s biggest economy is still growing but more slowly than first thought. the first three months of this year the us economy grew by 1.1% months of this year the us economy grew by1.1% and months of this year the us economy grew by 1.1% and that is on an annualised basis with consumer spending still remaining pretty strong but many analysts have been expecting today s figure to be closer to the 2% mark with all of this of course adding to fears that the american economy is running out of steam so let s get the thoughts of steam so let s get the thoughts of samir hussein, our north american business correspondence standing by new york and that is the question, isn t it. is this just a temporary blip or are we on a longer term slowdown? because we have talked a lot about the us avoiding recession. this will be welcome news. they can certainly not. this demonstrates the us economy is certainly l