January 26, 2023
What recession?
New numbers released today show the economy – yeah – is slowing, but it’s still strong.
The gross domestic product – basically the value of all the goods and services created – increased again in the fourth quarter of 2022. The Bureau of Economic Analysis found the GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.9%. Thanks to manufacturing, consumer spending and federal and state government spending.
It’s probably easier to show you what it looks like in a chart.
This major drop in GDP was Q2 of 2020 – when we were all in lockdown.
Let’s look at 2022. You can see Q1 and Q2 showed slight dips in GDP, but Q3 and Q4 showed positive numbers. Not as strong as we saw in 2021. And that’s exactly what the Federal Reserve wants to see.
Economic experts say these numbers coupled with the strong jobs numbers are showing that it’s actually possible that The Fed can pull off a so called ‘soft landing.” Brining inflation down without crashing the economy.
Read the GDP report here.
