The US Economy Shrank Above Expected

The US Economy Shrank Above Expected. The US economy, which is expected to contract by 4.8 percent due to the coronavirus outbreak, shrank by 5 percent in the first quarter. The US Department of Commerce shared the second leading gross domestic product (GDP) data for the January-March period of 2020. According to these data, GDP in the USA decreased by 5 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period of 2019. The market prospect for the downward revised GDP data was that the economy contracted by 4.8 percent in the first quarter. In the first leading data published in April, it was stated that GDP decreased by 4.8 percent in January-March period. The US economy, which shrank above the estimations in the first quarter of this year due to the coronavirus epidemic, recorded a growth of 2.1 percent in the last quarter of 2019. In this period, the contraction in the US economy, personal consumption expenditures, fixed investments of foreigners, private stock investments, decline in exports and imports were effective. In the downward revision of GDP for the first quarter of this year, the downward revision in private stock investments was partially offset by personal consumption expenditures and the upward revision in foreign fixed investments. In the mentioned period, personal consumption expenditures decreased by 6.8 percent. The increase in the core personal consumption expenditure price index, which excludes food and energy expenditures, has been updated from 1.8 percent to 1.6 percent.