Real US gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annualised 1.6% rate in the second quarter (Q2) of 2010 after increasing 3.7% in the first quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) today.

The second-quarter growth rate was revised down 0.8 percentage point from the “advance” estimate, in part reflecting new data on imports for June. Real gross domestic purchases - - purchases of goods and services produced domestically and abroad - - rose 4.9% in the second quarter after rising 3.9% in the first quarter.

GDP highlights: The BEA said slower GDP growth primarily reflected a surge in imports compared with the previous quarter and a slowdown in inventory investment. These contributions to the slowdown in GDP growth were partly offset by an upturn in residential investment, an acceleration in business investment, an upturn in state and local government spending, and a pick up in federal government spending.

Downward revisions to net exports and to inventory investment were partly offset by an upward revision to consumer spending for services.

Real exports of goods and services increased 9.1% in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 11.4% in the first.  Real imports of goods and services increased 32.4%, compared with an increase of 11.2%.

The change in real private inventories added 0.63 percentage point to the second-quarter change in real GDP, after adding 2.64 percentage points to the first-quarter change.  Private businesses increased inventories $63.2bn in the second quarter, following an increase of $44.1bn in the first quarter and a decrease of $36.7bn in the fourth.

Corporate Profits: Second-quarter corporate profits rose 4.6% at a quarterly rate. Nonfinancial corporate profits increased 8.1%, and financial corporate profits decreased marginally. Profits from the rest of the world increased 1.4%.

Insight on the markets and latest GDP report, with Tony Crescenzi, PIMCO, and CNBC's Rick Santelli: