{"id":322,"date":"2025-05-29T13:23:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T13:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/existing-provider.com\/?p=322"},"modified":"2025-05-30T10:28:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T10:28:42","slug":"hit-by-trump-trade-wars-u-s-economy-falls-0-2-in-first-quarter-an-upgrade-from-initial-estimate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/existing-provider.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/29\/hit-by-trump-trade-wars-u-s-economy-falls-0-2-in-first-quarter-an-upgrade-from-initial-estimate\/","title":{"rendered":"Hit by Trump trade wars, U.S. economy falls 0.2% in first quarter, an upgrade from initial estimate"},"content":{"rendered":"

By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.2% annual pace from January through March, the first drop in three years, as President Donald Trump\u2019s trade wars<\/a> disrupted business, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade of its initial estimate.<\/p>\n

First-quarter growth was brought down by a surge in imports as companies in the United States hurried to bring in foreign goods before the president imposed massive import taxes.<\/p>\n

The January-March drop in gross domestic product \u2014 the nation\u2019s output of goods and services \u2014 reversed a 2.4% gain in the fourth quarter of 2024. Imports grew at a 42.6% pace, fastest since third-quarter 2020, and shaved more than 5 percentage points off GDP growth. Consumer spending also slowed sharply.<\/p>\n

And federal government spending fell at a 4.6% annual pace, the biggest drop in three years.<\/p>\n

Trade deficits reduce GDP. But that\u2019s mainly a matter of mathematics. GDP is supposed to count only what\u2019s produced domestically. So imports \u2014 which the government counts as consumer spending in the GDP report when you buy, say, Costa Rican coffee \u2014 have to be subtracted out to keep them from artificially inflating domestic production.<\/p>\n