WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter at its sharpest rate considering that the Great Economic downturn as strict steps to slow the spread of the unique coronavirus nearly shut down the nation, ending the longest expansion in the nation’s history.
FILE IMAGE: People wearing protective masks walk past closed stores on the Coney Island boardwalk during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., April 11,2020 Picture taken April 11,2020 REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
The decrease in gdp (GDP) reflected a plunge in economic activity in the last 2 weeks of March, which saw millions of Americans looking for unemployment benefits. The Commerce Department’s picture of first-quarter GDP on Wednesday strengthened analysts’ forecasts that the economy was currently in a deep economic downturn.
” The economy will continue to fall up until the country opens back up,” said Chris Rupkey, primary economic expert at MUFG in New York. “If the economy fell this hard in the first quarter, with less than a month of pandemic lockdown for most states, do not ask how far it will crater in the 2nd quarter.”
Gdp declined at a 4.8%annualized rate last quarter, weighed down by sharp declines in customer costs and a drawdown of stock at services. That was the steepest rate of contraction in GDP because the 4th quarter of2008 A deepening downturn in investment by companies was another major factor in the slump last quarter, assisting to eclipse favorable news from a shrinking import expense, the real estate market and more spending by the government.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had anticipated GDP falling at a 4.0%rate last quarter, though estimates wer