The US economy’s recovery picked up as consumers used stimulus checks to boost retail spending in January to its biggest increase in seven months, a remarkable leap that arrives as manufacturers continued to gain output and employers carried on with recruiting.The most recent positive indications came on Wednesday when the government announced that retail sales, a portion of acquisitions at stores, at restaurants and online, leaped a seasonally adjusted 5.3% in January from a month earlier, and manufacturing output came close to pre-pandemic levels.While the pandemic has kept at weighing the economy and recent winter weather has caused disruptions, indications of growth, new government stimulus and eased coronavirus related business restrictions have caused some economists to maximize gross domestic product calculations for the initial quarter of the year. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model on Wednesday forecasted that the economy will climb at a 9.5% seasonally adjusted yearly rate in the first quarter, up strongly from a 4.5% estimate a week ago. Minutes from the Fed’s January policy meeting separately indicated that policy makers expected the end-of-the-year federal stimulus package and advancement toward extensive vaccinations would boost the outlook for the economy.