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The US economy shrank at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent in Q1

washingtonpost.com

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Re: The US economy shrank at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent in Q1

#5
post #2

The economy shrank at an annualized rate of 2.9% over one quarter. That's 2.9% / 4 ~= 0.7% in Q1.

Could you explain this please?

"If every quarter this year was the same as this one, it would be a 2.9% decline for the year."

sp332 uses the ~= symbols for approximately equal because technically you can't just divide the percentage by four like that. 2.9%/4 = .725% (exactly), but technically four quarters at .725% shrink each would produce 100%-((100%-.725%)^4) for the year, which is a 2.869...% decrease, not exactly 2.9%. But for small percents being compounded a small number of times it is a decent approximation, in this case thoroughly dominated by measurement inaccuracies and noise levels; the small percentage and the small number of compoundings work together to keep the error very small.

Re: The US economy shrank at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent in Q1

#8
post #2

The economy shrank at an annualized rate of 2.9% over one quarter. That's 2.9% / 4 ~= 0.7% in Q1.

Could you explain this please?

Meaning that if the rate of decline experienced in Q1 continued throughout the year, then the annual shrinkage would be about 3%. 1.0074^4 is about 1.03, so the actual shrinkage for the quarter in question was 0.74%.

Re: The US economy shrank at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent in Q1

#10
post #2

The economy shrank at an annualized rate of 2.9% over one quarter. That's 2.9% / 4 ~= 0.7% in Q1.

Could you explain this please?

if the economy shrinks by 0.05% on the Sunday before thanksgiving, you could annualize that by multiplying by 365 and getting an 18.25% shrink in the size of the American economy on that day.

It would be an extremely false statement to write, "The U.S. Economy contracted by 18.25% on Sunday before Thanksgiving", which is how our title reads. ("The economy shrank almost 3 percent in Q1").

The number 3% doesn't appear anywhere, just as the number 18.25% doesn't appear anywhere. sp332's very good point is that it should include the word "annualized" or read "0.7%". A huge difference!

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