U.S. economy closes out 2020 with lower than expected 4% gain; down 3.5% for the year
After a year in which a pandemic and politics posed challenges unlike the U.S. has seen in generations, the economy closed 2020 in fairly good shape.
Gross domestic product, or the sum of all goods and services produced, increased at a 4% pace in the fourth quarter, slightly below the 4.3% expectation from economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
Thursday’s report was the Commerce Department’s initial estimate of growth for the quarter.
In the Commerce report, the annualized pace closed out a 2020 that saw GDP overall decline 3.5% for the full year and by 2.5% from the fourth quarter of 2019. The economy fell into recession in February, a month before the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic.
The 3.5% decline is the worst year for the U.S. since 1946 - at the end of World War II.
At: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/fourth-quarter-gdp-increased-4point0percent-vs-4point3percent-estimate.html
Vacant storefronts in San Francisco in October.
While the 3.5% drop in real GDP during 2020 was milder than expected earlier in the year, the pandemic's effects on retailers was severe and widespread.
The recession may have been deeper but for a federal budget deficit that reached 15% of GDP - up from 4.5% in 2019, and the highest since 1945.
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