Report: Massachusetts economy outpaced US growth in 2nd quarter

A new report says the Massachusetts economy grew at a solid clip in the second quarter of 2014, rebounding from a weak first quarter.

The MassBenchmarks Current Economic Index said the state's unemployment rate continued to drop during the April-June period while payroll employment and consumer spending were on the rise.

The report said the state's gross domestic product grew at an estimated annual rate of 4.9 percent in the second quarter.

That would outpace the national economy, which according to the U.S. Commerce Department expanded at a 4 percent annual rate in the quarter.

MassBenchmarks, a journal published by the UMass Donahue Institute, revised downward its first quarter estimate to show the state's economy contracted by three-tenths of a point, after an earlier estimate of 2.6 percent growth in the January-March period.