U.S. third-quarter growth revised up to 3.6 percent, jobless claims fall

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew faster than initially estimated in the third quarter as businesses aggressively accumulated stock, but underlying domestic demand remained sluggish and buoyed the case for the Federal Reserve to keep up its stimulus for now. Gross domestic product grew at a 3.6 percent annual rate instead of the 2.8 percent pace reported earlier, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. The third-quarter growth pace was the fastest since the first quarter of 2012 and marked an acceleration from the April-June period's 2.5 percent rate, although economists expect slower growth in the final months of the year. Businesses accumulated $116.5 billion worth of inventories, the largest increase since the first quarter of 1998.