America’s economy suffered a historic collapse in the second quarter of this year, with Commerce Department figures showing Gross Domestic Product plummeting by 32.9 percent in annualized terms as business activity ground to a halt due to the pandemic.
The unprecedented economic contraction is an “advance” estimate released by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday, subject to a revision in the subsequent release, due to be published on Aug. 27. Thursday’s release also confirmed that first-quarter GDP fell by 5 percent, unchanged from the previously published preliminary estimate. The drop in GDP was more than triple the previous all-time decline of 10 percent in the second quarter of 1958.
