GDP Unchanged

The government revised its estimate for second-quarter GDP growth, and the revised number was the same as the initial report — -1.0%. Wall Street was expecting -1.5%.

The drop, while representing a record fourth consecutive decline, was far smaller than the previous two quarters. It also was stronger than the 1.5 percent decline that private economists expected.
The new report found that businesses slashed their inventories more than first reported and cut back more sharply on investment in new plants and equipment. But those reductions were offset by revisions that showed smaller dips in consumer spending, exports and housing construction.
The 1 percent rate of decline in the second quarter followed decreases of 6.4 percent in the first quarter and 5.4 percent in the final three months of 2008, the sharpest back-to-back declines in a half-century. The four straight quarterly declines in G.D.P., which measures the country’s total output of goods and services, mark the first time that has occurred on government records that date to 1947.

Posted by on August 27th, 2009 at 9:29 am


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