And expectations. If the US was coming off a year of, say 3.2% growth, or if the fed predicted 3.1% (I love how they never include margins of error) then this wouldn't be such a rosy picture.
I don't know if the Fed themselves gives margins of error, but the GDPNow indicator the Atlanta Fed puts out (https://www.atlantafed.org/cqer/research/gdpnow) also includes ranges for industry forecasts. In this case it seems we were above even the most optimistic expectations.
