Iran Press/America: US economic growth as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 4.8 percent on an annualized basis in the first quarter of this year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said on Wednesday.
That is the sharpest decline since the height of the Great Recession and marks an abrupt end to the longest economic expansion in the nation's history.
The reading effectively confirms that the economy has entered a sharp recession.
Most of the major components that drive US economic activity contracted in the first quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for roughly two-thirds of the country's economic growth, showed its steepest drop since 1980.
Imports nosedived 15.3 percent - reflecting the falloff in demand domestically, while exports fell 8.7 percent as global demand also dried up in the wake of coronavirus containment measures.
Business investment fell 8.6 percent - the sharpest quarterly fall since the Great Recession.
As bad as the first quarter was, economists are expecting much worse for the current quarter.
Capital Economics chief US economist Paul Ashworth has a similarly dire outlook, writing in a note on Wednesday: "Even with some states now tentatively re-opening, we anticipate a 40% annualized decline in second-quarter GDP."
The news could heap even more pressure on state and local governments to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions to get the economy back up and running again.
The number could also provide fodder for critics of President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Some 26.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the five weeks ending April 18, with applications appearing to peak in late March.
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