The U.S. economy shrank at a 5.0% rate in the first quarter with a much worse decline expected in the current three-month economic period because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the decline in the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, in the January-March quarter was unchanged from the estimate made a month ago.
That was the sharpest quarterly decline since an 8.4% fall in the fourth quarter of 2008 during the depths of the financial crisis.
FILE - In this July 22, 2019 photo, trucks hauling shipping containers wait to unload at the Port of Oakland in Oakland, Calif. The Commerce Department issues its second estimate of how the U.S. economy performed in the first quarter of 2020 on Thursday, May 28, 2020.(AP PhotoBen Margot, File)
The first quarter decline reflected just two weeks of the shutdowns that began in many parts of the country in mid-March.
Economists are forecasting a much bigger GDP drop of around 30% for the current April-June period.
A person walks past a row of closed businesses, Wednesday, April 29, 2020, in Upper Darby, Pa. Devastated by the coronavirus, the U.S. economy is sinking. Now, as some businesses in a few states start to trickle back to work, hopes are beginning to arise that the economy, damaged as it is, might be poised to rebound by the second half of the year. (AP PhotoMatt Slocum)