Real GDP Numbers Revised Downward for 2007, 2008 and 2009

On July 30th, the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the US Department of Commerce released their advance estimate for Q2 real gross domestic product growth in the United States.

In addition, the BEA also announced that they had revised their real GDP numbers downwards for 2007, 2008 and 2009.

In short - the "Great Recession" had been worse than previously thought.

Here were the original real GDP growth numbers (change from preceding year) for 2007, 2008 and 2009:

2007, +2.1%
2008, +0.4%
2009, -2.4%

The revised numbers looked like this:

2007, +1.9%
2008, +0.0%
2009, -2.6%

Previous estimates had the economy contracting at an annual rate of 2.5% from Q4 2007 to Q2 2009 - the revised estimates came in at 2.8%.

Two of the major reasons for the lowered numbers? Downwards revisions in state and local government spending, as well as upwards revisions to imports.

--

While the nation currently entertains the possibility of a "double dip recession" presenting itself in the months ahead, it is interesting to note that the previous recession was quite a bit worse than originally thought.

I don't think that anybody will really be surprised.

Source: BEA.gov - Q2 2010 GDP Advance Estimate

Filed under: The Economic Meltdown