The resurgence of the Covid pandemic hit the US economy harder than expected in the first quarter.
The US economy suffered an unexpected contraction in the first quarter due to the impact of the resurgence of the Covid pandemic on the country’s activity, the first official estimate of gross domestic product showed on Thursday.
GDP in the world’s largest economy fell 1.4% annualized over the January-March period, the Commerce Department said, after growing 6.9% in the last three months of 2021.
Economists polled by Reuters on average forecast growth of 1.1%. Their estimates ranged between a contraction of 1.4% and growth of 2.6%.
“The fall in GDP reflects the fall in private investments, exports, (…) public expenditure by the federal state and local governments, while imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased “, explained the Department of Commerce in a press release.
The United States favors growth at an annualized rate, ie projected over the entire year at this rate. Other advanced economies, such as France, simply compare to the previous quarter.
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