The economy struggled through the first three months of 2008, weighed down by the housing slump and a hesitant consumer, but export sales and inventory growth helped stave off a contraction. The gross domestic product grew at a 0.6 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday, holding steady from the last three months of 2007. The expansion, however slim, came as something of a relief to Wall Street, which had been bracing for a contraction. Many analysts have labeled the current downturn a recession, but the economy appears so far to have avoided the informal definition of two consecutive quarters of contraction. Still, the report showed the economy had slowed to a crawl. G.D.P. grew at a 4.9 percent pace in the third quarter of 2007, before the subprime mortgage crisis began to expand into other sectors.
