US Economy Shrank at 4.8 Percent Annual Rate in 1st Quarter, Biggest Drop Since Great Recession

'The decline in first-quarter GDP was, in part, due to the response to the spread of COVID-19,' the Commerce Department said

A shuttered business is pictured on Decatur Street in New Orleans on March 26, 2020. Emily Kask/AFP/Getty Images

The CCP virus outbreak has plunged the U.S. economy into its most severe quarterly contraction since the Great Recession, with the Commerce Department on April 29 announcing that first-quarter output fell by an annualized rate of 4.8 percent.

The department’s seasonally adjusted, annualized quarter-on-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) number, typically abbreviated as SAAR QoQ, is an advance estimate and subject to revision.