The U.S. Commerce Department's assessment of how much the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) grew in the last three months of 2012 has been raised to 0.4 percent from a previous estimate of 0.1 percent, the department said Thursday.

Initially, GDP in the fourth quarter was estimated to have declined by 0.4 percent. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis revises its economic statistics as more data becomes available.

In the third quarter the U.S. GDP grew at a 3.1 percent pace.

The reason for the fourth-quarter GDP slowdown was a cutback in military spending and businesses slowing down the pace of inventory restocking.