Tag: gross domestic product

Fed officials see GDP, inflation rising higher in 2021

The Hill logo

Federal Reserve officials see economic growth and inflation rising higher in 2021 than they expected earlier this year, according to economic projections released Wednesday.

Members of the Fed board and presidents of reserve banks, which together make up the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), largely see the pace of the rebound from the coronavirus pandemic accelerating deeper into the year. 

The median estimate of 2021 gross domestic product growth from FOMC members rose to 7 percent from a projection of 6.5 percent in March. The median estimate of annual inflation also rose to 3.4 percent from 2.4 percent in March, while the median estimate of unemployment remained unchanged at 4.5 percent. Continue reading.

A Collapse That Wiped Out 5 Years of Growth, With No Bounce in Sight

New York Times logoThe second-quarter contraction set a grim record, and it would have been worse without government aid that is expiring.

The coronavirus pandemic’s toll on the nation’s economy became emphatically clearer Thursday as the government detailed the most devastating three-month collapse on record, which wiped away nearly five years of growth.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced, fell 9.5 percent in the second quarter of the year as consumers cut back spending, businesses pared investments and global trade dried up, the Commerce Department said.

The drop — the equivalent of a 32.9 percent annual rate of decline — would have been even more severe without trillions of dollars in government aid to households and businesses. Continue reading.