US economy shrank by 5.5 percent in first quarter

September 30th, 2009 Summary Box: Economic recovery looks bumpyTHE WAY WE WERE: The economy contracted at a pace of 0.7 percent in the second quarter, a vast improvement from the first three months of this year, when the economy shrank at a pace of 6.4 percent, the biggest downhill slide in nearly three decades. THE RECOVERY PHASE: Many analysts predict the economy returned to growth in the just-ended third quarter at a pace of at least 3 percent.

August 27th, 2009 Ahead of the Bell: Gross domestic productWASHINGTON — Wall Street analysts expect the economy improved in the second quarter — just not as much as the government said at first. A Commerce Department report is expected to show the economy shrank at annualized rate of 1.5 percent in the April-June quarter, according to a survey of Wall Street economists by Thomson Reuters.

July 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US economy shrank at a one-percent annual rate in the second quarter of 2009, according to a preliminary estimate Friday by the US Commerce Department. The figure was better than economists expected and signals that the longest US recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s has slowed dramatically.

July 24th, 2009 UK Q2 GDP down 0.8 percentLONDON — Official data shows Britain's economy shrank by 0.8 percent in the second quarter, the fifth straight quarterly decline and worse than analyst forecasts of a drop of 0.3 percent. The figure released Friday is a marked improvement over the 2.4 percent decline in the first quarter but confirms that the economy is still in recession.

June 30th, 2009 Report: U.K. economy shrank 2.4 pct in 1st quarterLONDON — The crisis-stricken British economy shrank by a revised 2.4 percent in the first quarter, even more than the previous estimate of a 1.9 percent decline and the worst drop in a half century, the government said Tuesday.

June 30th, 2009 Turkish economy shrank 13.8 percent in Q1ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's economy shrank by a painful 13.8 percent in the first quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago as foreign trade contracted sharply amid the global recession, the Turkish Statistics Institute announced on Tuesday. Exports declined by 41 percent in the year to May while imports dropped by 43.9 percent, the institute said.

June 30th, 2009 LONDON - The British economy shrank by 2.4 percent in the first quarter - the fastest rate of shrinkage in more than 50 years, according to official figures released Tuesday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the contraction between January and March was the fastest since 1958.

June 4th, 2009 Ukraine economy down 21 percent in Q1KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine's economy has slumped by 21 percent in the first quarter, parliamentary auditors said Thursday, the latest in a series of figures highlighting the dizzying dive that the country's economy has taken. The legislature's Audit Chamber said such a severe economic downturn calls for amending this year's budget, which is based on a government forecast of 0.4 percent growth.

May 29th, 2009 India's economic slowdown eases in first quarterMUMBAI, India — India's economic slowdown unexpectedly eased in the first quarter as expansion in construction, financial services and agriculture offset a slide in manufacturing, according to government figures Friday. Asia's third-biggest economy grew 5.8 percent from a year earlier in the first three months of 2009, the same rate as the previous quarter, and much better than many economists had expected.

May 1st, 2009 Mexico: Economy down near 7 percent in 1st quarterMEXICO CITY — Mexico says its economy shrank nearly 7.0 percent in the first quarter from the previous year, as manufacturing exports plunged 22.8 percent. Mexico's Treasury Department says the drop "is due to the deterioration of global economic conditions." It says the country lost 372,289 jobs during the quarter.

April 24th, 2009 SKorean economy shrinks 4.3 percent in 1st quarterSEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's economy contracted 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2009 from the same period last year, as manufacturing and exports slumped amid the global downturn, the Bank of Korea announced Friday. That marks the second straight quarter that South Korea's economy grew smaller.

April 24th, 2009 South Korea stimulus puts recession on holdSEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's economy, Asia's fourth largest, narrowly avoided recession in the first quarter as government pump priming offset a slump in exports but officials still predict a contraction for the full year. Gross domestic product grew 0.1 percent in the first quarter from the last three months of 2008 when it shrank 5.1 percent, the Bank of Korea said Friday.

March 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US economy shrank by 6.3 percent in the final quarter of 2008, according to an adjusted figure released Thursday by the US Commerce Department. The figure is only slightly larger than the annualized 6.2 percent initially estimated last month, but remains the worst fourth-quarter showing by the country since the recession of 1982.

March 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US economy shrank in nearly all parts of the country in the first two months of the year, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in the latest sign of a deepening US recession. Ten of 12 US regions reported 'weaker conditions or declines in economic activity' since the start of 2009, according to the central bank's Beige Book, which is compiled from local business reports around the country.

December 25th, 2008 WASHINGTON - The US economy contracted in the July-September period by 0.5 percent, much deeper than first thought, the US commerce department has reported. The updated reading was more than the rate of decline in the gross domestic product (GDP) first estimated at 0.3 percent a month ago, and the worst showing since the world's largest economy shrank at a pace of 1.4 percent in the third quarter of 2001, when the nation was suffering through its last recession.