US economy contracts 32.9 pct in Q2 amid mounting Covid-19 fallout

The US economy contracted at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter amid mounting Covid-19 fallout, the US Commerce Department reported Thursday (July 31).
 
The decrease in real gross domestic product (GDP) reflected decreases in personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment, nonresidential fixed investment, residential fixed investment, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by an increase in federal government spending, according to the "advance" estimate released by the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis.
 
Such a sharp contraction over such a short period of time dwarfed the dozens of economic slumps over the past two centuries, including those during the Great Depression and the global financial crisis, the CNBC reported.
 
In the first quarter of 2020, U.S. real GDP contracted at an annual rate of 5 percent.

(Source: Xinhua)