The bureau is the group tasked to determine when economic events, including recessions and expansions, officially begin and end.
The bureau’s Business Cycle Dating Committee met on Sunday to determine dating for the latest cycle of economic recession, which began in December 2007.
"The trough marks the end of the declining phase and the start of the rising phase of the business cycle," the bureau said in a statement. "Economic activity is typically below normal in the early stages of an expansion, and it sometimes remains so well into the expansion."
The trough, which was determined to be June 2009 was followed by a slow economic expansion, which is still ongoing. The 18-month recession was the longest since World War II, the bureau said.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based bureau also noted that should another recession occur in the near future, it would be considered a new recession, not a “double-dip” recession as coined by some economists.
The past two post-Great Depression recessions occurred 1973-1975, and 1981-1982, both of which lasted 16 months each.
“The committee concluded that the behavior of the quarterly series for real GDP and GDI indicates that the trough occurred in mid-2009. Real GDP reached its low point in the second quarter of 2009, while the value of real GDI was essentially identical in the second and third quarters of 2009,” the bureau said.
