America is facing its first economic downturn since 2014 – By Anneken Tappe (CNN Business) / April 28 2020
New York (CNN Business)The American economy has grown for 23 quarters in a row — nearly six straight years of uninterrupted growth. Coronavirus almost certainly ended that streak last quarter, even though the pandemic didn’t disrupt most US businesses until mid-March.
But the abrupt and nearly universal shutdown probably more than offset any economic growth from January and February. Businesses shut down and workers stayed home, while mass layoffs led claims for unemployment benefits to spike.
Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expect the US economy contracted at a 4% annualized rate, compared to a 2.1% growth rate in the fourth quarter of last year. It would be the first quarterly contraction since the first three months of 2014, and the worst drop since the first quarter of 2009, when the economy contracted by an annualized 4.4% rate in the midst of the financial crisis.
If the economy fared worse than expected between January and March, it could be the worst quarterly performance since the fourth quarter of 2008, when the economy shrank an annualized 8.4%.
The Commerce Department is set to release the first-quarter gross domestic product report on Wednesday morning at 8:30 am ET. GDP is the most expansive measure of the US economy.
Continue to article: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/economy/us-gdp-first-quarter-coronavirus/index.html
