The United States economy officially entered a recession in February
June 8, 2020 / By Antonia Noori Farzan, Teo Armus, Jennifer Hassan, Rick Noack, Brittany Shammas, Kim Bellware and Taylor Telford
The U.S. economy officially entered a recession in February, according to The National Bureau of Economic Research, which announced that a 128-month expansion officially ended then. The expansion, which had begun in June 2009 after a recession, was the longest on record.
The coronavirus outbreak began in China in December and spread to the U.S. in January, although it wasn’t until mid-March that the WHO declared it a global pandemic and President Trump declared it a national emergency.
The World Bank estimates that global gross domestic product will shrink 5.2 percent in 2020 as the pandemic continues to disrupt business, travel and manufacturing around the world.
Yet U.S. markets opened strongly on Monday, following Friday’s news that the nation’s economy added 2.5 million jobs in May. The S&P 500 is now within 1 percent of turning positive for 2020, after having been down as much as 30 percent.
