It’s only a recession when Biden says it’s a recession.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) is confirmed to have shrunk at an annualized rate of 0.6% in the second quarter of 2022, according to a Thursday report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
New data from the agency confirms the figure, which had already been revised to 0.6% from an earlier estimate of 0.9%. Output contracted at a 1.6% annualized rate in the first quarter.
“The decrease in real GDP reflected decreases in private inventory investment, residential fixed investment, federal government spending, and state and local government spending, that were partly offset by increases in exports and consumer spending,” the Bureau of Economic Analysis explained. “Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.”
The two consecutive quarters of negative growth places the United States into technical recession territory. Although the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit entity generally recognized as the country’s business cycle scorekeeper, defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months,” the entity also examines more granular data in declaring periods of recession.
The Biden administration has leaned upon the lack of an official declaration while spurning criticism about the outcomes of its economic agenda.