By Steve Goldstein
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. economy grew at a 2.8% rate in 2012, not the 2.2% previously estimated, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday as part of its revisions to past data. The government is using a new methodology that adds research and development, entertainment originals and other definitional changes, and it also revised data for the past five years to reflect more up-to-date statistics: in total, those changes added $559.8 billion to the size of the U.S. economy last year. But most years didn't see this level of revision, and the average annual rate of growth between 1929 and 2012 is now 3.3% vs. a 3.2% prior estimate.
