Statement from U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on the Advance Estimate of GDP for the Second Quarter of 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis today released the advance estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of 2011. Today’s release also contained revisions to prior years. Real GDP grew 1.3 percent at an annual rate, below private-sector expectations of 1.8-percent growth and up from 0.4-percent growth in the first quarter, which was revised down from 1.9 percent. The most notable revision was to 2009, where GDP growth was revised down 0.9 percentage points, indicating that the recession was even more severe than initially estimated. GDP has now grown for eight consecutive quarters.