WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s what economists call sustained growth. That’s when the U.S. economy expands by a relatively robust margin over a period of several months.

That’s precisely what analysts surveyed by FactSet expect when the government releases a report later today on overall business growth, as measured by the gross domestic product. They predict that the economy grew at a healthy 3 percent annual rate in the quarter from July through September.

If the expectations turn out to be accurate, it would be the fourth quarter in the past five in which the economy has reached at least a 3 percent growth rate.

The Commerce Department says for the April to June period, growth reached a sizzling 4.6 percent. But that marked a sharp bounce back from the first quarter, when the economy actually shrank at an annual rate of 2.1 percent.

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