The U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared with the 6.3 percent drop in the previous quarter, the Commerce Department reported on Wednesday.
Analysts had been expecting a decrease of 5 percent for the first three months of this year. The worse-than-expected contraction signaled little improvement in a deep recession.
"The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, private inventory investment, equipment and software, non-residential structures, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive contribution from personal consumption expenditures," the department said.
"Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased," it said.
Source: Xinhua
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