Preliminary Commerce Department figures show that the US GDP declined at an annualized rate of 1 percent in the second quarter. “While the contraction was less severe than the in the previous three quarters, it was the first time since official figures started in 1947 that the US has suffered four consecutive periods of declining output,” FT reports.
This gives pretty good reason to hope that we’ll see growth in the next quarter and thus be officially out of the recession. (Much more anecdotal evidence at the link.)
And it’s truly remarkable that four consecutive quarters — i.e., merely one year — of negative growth is a postwar record.
