Covid-19: US economy records worst quarterly plunge ever, GDP shrinks 33%

The US economy shrank at a dizzying 33 per cent annual rate in the April-June quarter by far the worst quarterly plunge ever when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7 per cent, the government said Thursday.

The Commerce Department's estimate of the second-quarter decline in the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, marked the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1947.

The previous worst quarterly contraction, a 10 per cent drop, occurred in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration.

Last quarter's drop followed