Washington: The size of the US economy declined by five percent during the first quarter. The US GDP is expected to decline more in the second quarter due to the corona virus epidemic.
The US Department of Commerce said on Thursday that the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) in the January-March quarter is in line with the estimate made a month earlier. This is the largest decline in US GDP in any quarter since the fall in the fourth quarter of 2008 during the global financial crisis.
In the fourth quarter of 2008, the US GDP declined by 8.4 percent. The March quarter data included only two weeks affected by the lockdown implemented due to the Corona virus epidemic. In such a situation, economists are expecting a fall of about 30 percent in the second quarter ie April-June period, much higher than the first quarter.
