Cold weather triggers slowdown in US economy

The US economy shifted into reverse in the first three months of 2014, shrinking by a rate of 1%.

The fall in output was blamed on an unusually cold and disruptive winter - one of the coldest in the US for 20 years - and a plunge in business investment and a slowdown in construction.

Economists estimate the weather could have cost up to 1.5 percentage points of GDP.

Analysts are confident that growth will bounce back in the second quarter and pointed to the underlying strength of consumer spending during the period when the economy was contracting.

The BBC’s Mike Johnson speaks to David Crowe of the National Association of Homebuilders in Washington and Roger Bootle of Capital Economics in London.