BEA: News Release: Gross Domestic Product

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT: FOURTH QUARTER 2008 (PRELIMINARY)

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property  located in the United States -- decreased at an annual rate of 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008,  (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to preliminary estimates released by the  Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the third quarter, real GDP decreased 0.5 percent.    	The GDP estimates released today are based on more complete source data than were available for  the advance estimates issued last month.  In the advance estimates, the decrease in real GDP was 3.8  percent (see "Revisions" on page 3).    	The decrease in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from  exports, personal consumption expenditures, equipment and software, and residential fixed investment  that were partly offset by a positive contribution from federal government spending.  Imports, which are  a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.    	Most of the major components contributed to the much larger decrease in real GDP in the fourth  quarter than in the third.  The largest contributors were a downturn in exports and a much larger  decrease in equipment and software.  The most notable offset was a much larger decrease in imports.    	Final sales of computers subtracted 0.01 percentage point from the fourth-quarter change in real  GDP, the same contribution as in the third quarter.  Motor vehicle output subtracted 2.04 percentage  points from the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.16 percentage point to the third-quarter  change.  

via bea.gov

So things were actually 40% worse than they looked a few months ago. And goodness knows how bad they really are now. Down towards the bottom of the press release, not excerpted here, is a note about GDP growth in 2008 (1.0% for those keeping track). The biggest contributors were personal consumption, exports, federal government spending, and state and local government spending. Okay, so, three out of the four elements that allowed us to grow at a whopping 1.0% last year (PCE, exports and state and local spending) are taking a huge hit. And the Republicans want to kick the last leg out from the stool.

Posted via web from Mhm.