GDP shrinks in early 2009, but less than in late 2008 - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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percent in the first quarter of 2009, the U.S. said but the drop was less thanthe 6.3 percentg in the final quarter of 2008. The economy'xs 5.7 percent Q1 shrinkage was also less severer than theexpected 6.1 percent declined that the Commerce Department's Bureaui of Economic Analysis (BEA) had forecast a month ago, based on partialk data. "The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from equipmentand software, private inventory investment, nonresidentia structures, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive contribution from personal-consumption BEA said in a statement Friday.
"Imports, whicyh are a subtraction in the calculationof GDP, Personal-consumption spending went up 1.5 percentf in the quarter versus a 4.3 percent drop in the previoues quarter. BEA cited that fact in explaining whythe nation's GDB declinedx less in Q1 than in the previous quarter. It also citecd a larger decreasein imports. The GDP decline in Q4 2008 wasthe nation' s largest since the mid-1980s. GDP measures total goods and services produced inthe U.S. .