Small Business Finance News
Real GDP Declines In Second Quarter, But Improves Over First Quarter
Written by Jenna Weiner
Published: 8/27/2009
The second quarter's real GDP results stayed consistent with original estimates of a 1 percent decrease, an improvement over last quarter's 6.4 percent decline.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis held firm on its original advance estimate of real gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2009, reporting this week that the country's real GDP decreased by 1 percent.
The decrease is a significant improvement over the previous quarter, which saw a real GDP decline of 6.4 percent.
Current dollar GDP was downwardly revised from the first estimate of a 0.8 percent decline, coming in at a 1 percent decline in the second estimate.
Among the most important news for small businesses was the fact that real personal consumption expenditures decreased by 1 percent in the second quarter, compared to an increase of 0.6 percent in the first quarter.
However, corporate profits saw an increase of $67.6 billion in the second quarter - an $8.5 billion increase over last quarter's growth.
In a separate report this week, the Census Bureau announced that new orders for manufactured durable goods increased by 4.9 percent or $7.8 billion in July to reach $168.4 billion. This marks the largest increase since July 2007 and the third increase in the past four months.
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