Sharp and sudden plunge in economy echoes Great Depression
by Jeffry Bartash
Market Watch
The numbers: The collapse in the U.S. economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic triggered the biggest drop in gross domestic product in the first quarter since 2008 in a prelude to an even more massive decline in the spring. GDP, the official scorecard for economic growth, shrank at a 4.8% annualized pace.
GDP, the official scorecard for the economy, shrank at a 4.8% annualized pace from the beginning of January to the end of March, the government said Wednesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a 3.9% decrease.
The worldwide spread of the coronavirus begin to nip at the edges of the U.S. economy early in the quarter before exploding in March into the biggest crisis since the Great Depression some 90 years ago.