U.S. economic activity contracted for the second consecutive quarter in Q2, data from the Commerce Department showed Thursday.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis’ advance estimate of Q2 U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) showed a 0.9% annualized decrease in economic growth for the three-month period ended June 30.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected data to show the U.S. economy grew at an annualized pace of 0.4% last quarter.
The decline in GDP comes after U.S. economic activity unexpectedly fell 1.6% during the first quarter, the first negative reading since the second quarter of 2020. Two straight negative GDP prints meets the unofficial definition of a recession.
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), however, says a recession “is a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months.”
The government’s preliminary reading on second-quarter GDP – the broadest measure of economic activity – comes one day after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told reporters at a press conference that he did not believe the economy is in a recession, even as other economic indicators show signs of softening.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis attributed the decline in GDP to broad-based decreases across private inventory investment, residential and nonresidential investment, and federal, state and local government spending.
Click here to see the full report from Alexandra Semenova at Yahoo Finance.