Last week Advocacy released our Quarterly Indicators for the first quarter of 2009. The economy continued its downward slide in January, February, and March of this year. The economic recession deepened; real gross domestic product fell by an annualized 6.1 percent. One bright spot in the first quarter was positive growth in consumer spending. Other GDP components were down. Real gross private fixed investment fell 38 percent to $1.44 trillion, mostly from a drop in nonresidential construction. Exports, imports, and industrial production also declined sharply.
For those interested in trend analysis, Advocacy’s Quarterly Indicators stretch back to the first quarter of 2004.
— John McDowell