US economic growth slows in second quarter

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19014425


Growth in the US economy slowed in the April to June quarter to an annualised pace of 1.5%, official figures show.

But growth in the first three months of the year was revised up to 2% from a previous estimate of 1.9%, the Commerce Department said.

Previous years' data was also revised to show the economy shrank 4.7% from the start of the recession in December 2007 until it ended three years ago.

It had earlier been thought the economy contracted by 5.1% over that period.

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1. First Year Of U.S. Economic Recovery Was Weaker Than Estimated

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-27/first-year-of-u-s-economic-recovery-was-weaker-than-estimated.html

The first year of the recovery from the worst U.S. recession in the post-World War II era was even weaker than previously estimated, evidence of the extent of the damage wreaked by the economic slump, revised figures show.

Gross domestic product grew 2.5 percent in the 12 months after the contraction ended in June 2009, compared with the 3.3 percent gain previously reported, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The government also revised down corporate profits and personal income for each of the past three years.

The update did little to change the contour of the recession or the rebound that followed even as the magnitude of movements shifted. The report also showed the world’s largest economy expanded at a 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter, down from a 2 percent rate in the first three months of the year.

The revisions “are not going to shape the story about the recession or subsequent expansion,” Brent Moulton, associate director for national economic accounts at the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, told reporters this week.