Washington, May 29: The US economy plodded ahead at a 1.9 per cent growth rate in the first quarter of 2003, the commerce department today said, revising upward its preliminary 1.6 percent growth estimate. The tepid pace in the January-March period for gross domestic product (GDP) reflected only a marginal improvement from the 1.4 per cent rate of the fourth quarter of 2003. The slightly faster pace of growth in the first quarter was roughly in line with the consensus forecast of Wall Street economists. Independent economist Joel Naroff said the first-quarter figures were affected by the run-up to the war in Iraq, but illustrate that this did not cause the economy to collapse as some had predicted. "Even during the quarter that we expected households to be the most conservative, we still got some modest growth," Naroff said. "Now that we`re past those uncertainties, we should expect growth to improve from that level. "We never got a double-dip (recession), the economy held up .. This doesn`t tell us where we`re going from here, but we have a base from which to grow." Consumers remained the key force in keeping the economy growing, with business investment faltering, the report showed. Consumer spending rose at a revised 2.0 per cent rate in the first quarter, up from the initial estimate of a 1.4 per cent gain. In addition to a higher estimate of consumer spending, there was also an increase in the estimate of US exports, but a downward revision to equipment and software and an upward revision to imports. Bureau Report