Government revises GDP growth down slightly for 2017

The economy grew at a slightly slower pace last year than previously believed, but Americans' saving rate was a lot higher, thanks to a flood of previously unreported income.

Those are some of the findings in the government's latest comprehensive revision of its report on the gross domestic product — the country's total output of goods and services.

The government each year revises the GDP figures back for three years. But every five years, it conducts a "comprehensive update," which examines GDP figures back to 1929.

The biggest change in the new report is that proprietors' income, the earnings reported to the Internal Revenue Service by proprietors and partnerships, was under-reported.

The overall GDP growth rate last year stands at 2.2 percent, down from 2.3 percent previously reported.