Real gross domestic product – the output of goods and services produced by labor and property in the U.S. – decreased at an annual rate of 0.7% in the second quarter 2009 (from the first quarter), according to the third estimate by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter real GDP decreased 6.4%.
In the second estimate for the second quarter, the decrease was 1%.
The decrease in real GDP in the second quarter reflected negative contributions from private inventory investment, nonresidential fixed investment, residential fixed investment, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), and exports that were partly offset by positive contributions from federal government spending and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
The much smaller decrease in real GDP in the second quarter than in the first primarily reflected much smaller decreases in nonresidential fixed investment and in exports, an upturn in federal
government spending, a smaller decrease in private inventory investment, an upturn in state and local government spending, and a smaller decrease in residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a much smaller decrease in imports and a downturn in PCE.
Motor vehicle output added 0.19 percentage point to the second-quarter change in real GDP after subtracting 1.69 percentage points from the first-quarter change.
Real nonresidential fixed investment decreased 9.6%, compared with a decrease of 39.2%. Nonresidential structures decreased 17.3%, compared with a decrease of 43.6%. Real residential fixed investment decreased 23.3%, compared with a decrease of 38.2%.
Real exports of goods and services decreased 4.1% in the second quarter, compared with a decrease of 29.9% in the first. Real imports of goods and services decreased 14.7%, compared with a decrease of 36.4%.
Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment increased 11.4% in the second quarter, in contrast to a decrease of 4.3% in the first. National defense increased 14%, in contrast to a decrease of 5.1%. Nondefense increased 6.1%, in contrast to a decrease of 2.5%. Real state and local government consumption expenditures and gross investment increased 3.9%.
The change in real private inventories subtracted 1.42 percentage points from the second-quarter change in real GDP, after subtracting 2.36 percentage points from the first-quarter change. Private businesses decreased inventories $160.2 billion in the second quarter, following a decrease of $113.9 billion in the first quarter and a decrease of $37.4 billion in the fourth.
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