The U.S. economy in the first quarter of 2022 saw its worse contraction since the pandemic in 2020, according to revised data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released on June 29.
The agency blames the downturn on an unexpected decline in economic activity due to the Omicron variant amid reduced government assistance.
“The U.S. economy shrank at a 1.6% annualized rate in Q1, slightly weaker than the 1.5% rate of decline estimated a month ago,” the BEA said on Twitter.
The 1.6 percent decline in GDP is the first since the second quarter of 2020, in stark contrast to the fourth quarter of 2021 where real GDP increased by 6.9 percent—the fastest rate gain in 40 years due to a jump in exports and an increase in U.S. auto stocks….