ECONOMIC WIPEOUT

America's economy shrank by a record-breaking 33% in last three months in biggest slump EVER as coronavirus takes unprecedented toll

 

Daily Mail

July 30. 2020

 

The U.S. economy shrank at a dizzying 33% annual rate in the April-June quarter - by far the worst quarterly plunge ever - as coronavirus shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7%, the government said Thursday. 

 

The Commerce Department's estimate of the second-quarter decline in the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, marked the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1947. The previous worst quarterly contraction, a 10% drop, occurred in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration. 

 

Last quarter's drop followed a 5% fall in the January-March quarter, during which the economy officially entered a recession triggered by the virus, ending an 11-year economic expansion, the longest on record in the United States. 

 

The figures are potentially devastating to Donald Trump's re-election - and came from the three months which included his re-opening push and claiming the U.S. was entering a 'transition to greatness.' 

 

In a second blow, weekly jobless statistics shows showed 1.4 million new unemployment claims - the second week in a row they have gone up.