CONSUMER BUYING CREATES BIGGEST GROWTH SPURT IN 5 YEARS.(Business)

Byline: DAVE SKIDMORE Associated Press

A consumer spending spree helped produce the best economic growth in five years during the final quarter of 1992, the government said Friday.

But consumer confidence has slipped a bit since then, and analysts said economic growth, while continuing, was unlikely to repeat the robust performance anytime soon.

The gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced in the United States, advanced at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the October-December quarter, the Commerce Department said in a revised report.

That was substantially better than the department's initial estimate a month ago of 3.8 percent. …