It's not long to go now until people across the United States take to the polling booths to choose who will lead their country as President, and today's results that the US economy grew by two per cent in the third quarter of this year will provide fresh ammunition to both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

President Obama, who went and cast an early ballot in Chicago, will be hoping for a boost from these better than expected results. He spoke of the benefits of casting your vote early:

"For all of you who have not yet early voted, I just want everyone to see what an incredibly efficient process this was thanks to the outstanding folks who are at this particular polling place. Obviously people in Illinois can take advantage of this but all across the country we're seeing a lot of early voting. It means you don't have to figure out if you need to take time off work, figure out how to pick up the kids and still cast your ballot, if something happens on election day you will have already taken care of it, if it's bad weather you won't get wet, or in Chicago snowy but this was really convenient."

Mitt Romney has been gaining ground on Obama in recent weeks, and the former governor of Massachusetts is sure to say the economy is still not growing rapidly enough to create sufficient jobs to reduce the unemployment rate of 7.8 per cent.

Whilst polls show currently a dead heat between the two, Obama seems to hold narrow leads in the crucial swing states of Florida, Virginia and Ohio.

Written and Presented by Alfred Joyner