2001 Recession Revised Away

[tritsofme]

US 2001 Slump May Not Have Been Recession at All

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Not only was the U.S. recession in 2001 the shallowest on record, it may not have been one at all -- at least in the classic sense of two straight quarterly declines, new government data show.

In annual revisions to U.S. gross domestic product numbers released on Friday that could fuel a politically charged debate, the Commerce Department rewrote the history of the recent downturn by revising away a decline in the second quarter of 2001.

The new figures, which reflect more complete source data, show economic activity peaked in the second quarter of 2001, not the fourth quarter of 2000.

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http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/116084|top|07-30-2004::08:50|reuters.html

Looking at BEA data for 2001, Q1 showed -0.5%, Q2 showed +1.2%, Q3 showed -1.4%, and Q4 +1.6%.

A recession is generally defined as two or more quarters of negative growth, back to back.

[ramapo]

1. Bush will have to renounce the Clinton recession

Now what will he blame his lousy economic performance on?