The U.S. economy contracted by 1.5 percent in the first quarter of 2022, following an increase of 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, due to a record trade deficit and 40-year high inflation, according to revised data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on May 26.
The contraction was revised down 0.1 percentage point from the “advance” estimate released in April 2022.
The update was driven by revisions to private inventory and residential investments, which were not as strong as initially reported, even as consumer spending was revised higher.
Adjusted pretax U.S. corporate profits in the first quarter fell for the first time since the second quarter of 2020 at a 2.3 percent rate, after a 0.7 percent spike in the last quarter of 2021, due to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases from the Omicron variant and a decline in government pandemic assistance payments….