The US economy contracted at an annual rate of 31.4 percent in the second quarter amid mounting COVID-19 fallout, 0.3 percentage point higher than the previous estimate in late August, the US Commerce Department said in its third and final estimate released Wednesday.
The upward revision with the latest estimate primarily reflected an upward revision to personal consumption expenditures (PCE) that was partly offset by downward revisions to exports and to non-residential fixed investment, according to the department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The decrease in real gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter reflected decreases in PCE, exports, non-residential fixed investment, private inventory investment, residential fixed investment, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by an increase in federal government spending, the report showed.
The “advance” estimate of GDP released in late July showed that the US economy contracted at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter.
People browse stores in Hudson Yards shopping center in New York City, the United States, Sept. 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
