WASHINGTON - The US economic growth rate was upwardly revised to an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the second quarter of this year from the previous estimate of 1 percent last month, the Commerce Department said in a report on Thursday.

The upward revision of the economic growth pace in the April-July period reflected a boost from consumer spending and trade.

The sub-par economic growth rate follows an anemic economic growth pace of 0.4 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Some economists held that the United States can see a stronger economic growth in the second half of this year, but the nation will continue to tackle a string of economic challenges including a stubbornly high unemployment rate at 9.1 percent and a weak housing market.

The increase in US real gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from nonresidential fixed investment, personal consumption expenditures, exports, and federal government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from state and local government spending and private inventory investment, the department said.

Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment increased 1.9 percent in the second quarter, in contrast to a decrease of 9.4 percent in the first, the report said.

US corporate profits from current production increased 61.2 billion dollars in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 19 billion dollars in the first.