US economic growth slowed to 2.4 percent in the second quarter.

• Sweden's economy grows faster than expected

The US economy continued reflecting expansion in the second quarter – but the pace of growth slowed compared with recent quarters and was lower than expected.

The country's GDP slowed to a 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said in its advance reading Friday. The number was slightly lower than the 2.5 percent rate expected by most analysts. In the first quarter, the rate of GDP was revised to 3.7 percent.

“The economy is muddling through,” Ethan Harris, head of North America economics at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Global Research in New York, told Bloomberg after the report. “We’re probably not going to see a really strong number for a while. We need to see some pickup in job growth.”

A slower pace of growth means employers may be reluctant to hire workers. They are also more likely to keep a lid on prices in order to increase sales.

World oil prices fell Friday as traders awaited news of an expected economic slowdown in top energy consumer the United States.

Sweden's GDP increased by 3.7 percent in the second quarter in working-day adjusted figures when compared to the second quarter of 2009, the statistics office said Friday. Exports increased by 14 percent and imports by 18 percent.