Gross domestic product decreased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in fourth quarter 2008

 

Bureau of Economic Analysis emphasized that the fourth-quarter advance estimates are based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency.

Real gross domestic product, the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States decreased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP decreased 0.5 percent.

The decrease in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, personal consumption expenditures, equipment and software, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by positive contributions from private inventory investment and federal government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased. Courtesy of Economics and Statistics Administration