Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020, according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter of 2020, real GDP decreased 5.0 percent. For more information, see the Technical Note.
GDP highlights
The second-quarter decrease in real GDP reflected decreases in consumer spending, exports, inventory investment, business investment, and housing investment that were partially offset by an increase in government spending. Imports, a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
The decrease in consumer spending reflected decreases in services (led by health care) and goods (led by clothing and footwear). The decrease in exports primarily reflected a decrease in goods (led by capital goods).
Personal income and saving
Real disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income adjusted for taxes and inflation—increased 44.9 percent in the second quarter after increasing 2.6 percent in the first quarter. The increase in DPI was more than accounted for by an increase in personal current transfer receipts (notably, government social benefits). Personal saving as a percent of disposable personal income was 25.7 percent in the second quarter, compared with 9.5 percent in the first quarter.
Prices
Prices of goods and services purchased by U.S. residents decreased 1.5 percent in the second quarter, after increasing 1.4 percent in the first quarter.
Annual update
BEA released its annual update of the national income and product accounts that incorporated newly available and revised source data from first quarter 2015 through the first quarter of 2020. For more details, see “Information on Updates to the National Income and Product Accounts”.
For more information, read the full report.