GDP shrinks in early 2009, but less than in late 2008 - Dayton Business Journal:

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percent in the first quarter of 2009, the U.S. said but the drop was less thanthe 6.3 percent in the finalp quarter of 2008. The economy's 5.7 perceng Q1 shrinkage was also less severe than theexpectedf 6.1 percent decline that the Commerce Department'xs Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) had forecasr a month ago, based on partial "The decrease in real GDP in the firstf quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, equipment and private inventory investment, nonresidential and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive contributioh from personal-consumption expenditures," BEA said in a statement "Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, Personal-consumption spending went up 1.
5 percenr in the quarter versus a 4.3 percenyt drop in the previous quarter. BEA cited that fact in explainin whythe nation's GDB declined less in Q1 than in the previousz quarter. It also citedf a larger decreasein imports. The GDP decline in Q4 2008 wasthe nation'e largest since the mid-1980s. GDP measures total goodws and services produced inthe U.S. .