Honolulu's economic expansion held steady in 2008 at a time when 60 percent of the nation's metropolitan areas experienced slower growth or outright contractions, according to a new federal report.

The city's gross domestic product grew by 1.4 percent last year and in 2007 after adjusting for inflation, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in Washington, D.C., an agency of the Department of Commerce's Economics and Statistics Administration.

That followed growth of 3.2 percent in 2006, the agency reported.

Honolulu's 1.4 percent growth rate in 2008 was 140th best among the 366 metropolitan statistical areas surveyed, according to the report. The average growth rate for all metro areas slowed to 0.8 percent in 2008 from 2 percent the year before. Growth slowed or reversed in 220 of the 366 metro areas last year.

The total value of goods and services produced in Honolulu last year, before adjusting for inflation, was $48.1 billion, ranking it as the nation's 51st most productive metro area. Honolulu ranked one place ahead of Rochester, N.Y., and one place behind Raleigh, N.C.

The bureau's analysis found that the biggest contributor to Honolulu's expansion last year was government spending, which accounted for about 1 percentage point of the 1.4 percent growth rate.

Honolulu also experienced modest growth in construction, durable goods manufacturing, trade, financial activities, professional and business services, education and health services.

Declines were recorded in transportation and utilities, leisure and hospitality, information technology, nondurable goods manufacturing and natural resources and mining.