Gross domestic product, one of the most important economic indicators, may not be too reliable in the near term, Warren Buffett said Monday.
"I think the [quarterly] GDP figures are inherently a little more suspect in terms of being precise, than year-over-year figures," Berkshire Hathaway's chairman and CEO told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
The U.S. economy grew at a dismal 0.5 percent rate in the first quarter, the Labor Department said Thursday.
"There's one little thing that many people don't understand about the GDP figures. Maybe I don't understand it, but my understanding is they're sequential figures. You take the figures from one quarter to another and multiply by four. So, if you're off by a tenth [of a percent] on the seasonal adjustment, that becomes a four-tenths figure," Buffett said. Still, he added, "that doesn't negate the fact that business is slow. It's not negative, but it's slow."
