(CBS/AP) U.S. gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the second quarter of this year. That lackluster performance was less than the 2.5 percent economists had forecast.
The report Friday is confirming investors' belief that the economic recovery is weakening as unemployment remains high and government stimulus programs end.
But also found in the latest government figures is that the recession was deeper than previously thought.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis, in revisions issued Friday, estimates the economy shrank 2.6 percent last year - the steepest drop since 1946.
That's worse than the 2.4 percent decline originally estimated.
The economy's plunge underscores why the unemployment rate surged to 10.1 percent in October, a 26-year high.
The revisions in gross domestic product, or GDP, now show zero growth in 2008. That compares with a 0.4 percent gain previously estimated. The economy also grew less in 2007 (1.9 percent) than earlier thought (2.1 percent).
For all three years, consumers spent less and home builders cut more deeply than had been thought. Those factors help explain the downward revisions on the economy.
The revisions also show that struggling state and local governments cut spending more last year than previously thought, and they spent less in 2007 and 2008. - CBS News Story
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