Economy: Gross Domestic Product (GDP): First Estimate for Q1, 2022

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): First Estimate for Q1, 2022

Earlier this morning, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its first estimate for U.S. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first quarter of 2022:

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Predicted: +1.2%

Actual: -1.4%

The yellow-highlighted percentage represents the first estimate of the quarter-to-quarter change for Real Gross Domestic Product for the entire United States.

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From Today's Report:

"...Disposable personal income increased $216.6 billion, or 4.8 percent, in the first quarter, compared with an increase of $20.1 billion, or 0.4 percent, in the fourth quarter. Real disposable personal income decreased 2.0 percent, compared with a decrease of 5.6 percent.

Personal saving was $1.21 trillion in the first quarter, compared with $1.39 trillion in the fourth quarter. The personal saving rate -- personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income -- was 6.6 percent in the first quarter, compared with 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter.

In the first quarter, an increase in COVID-19 cases related to the Omicron variant resulted in continued restrictions and disruptions in the operations of establishments in some parts of the country. Government assistance payments in the form of forgivable loans to businesses, grants to state and local governments, and social benefits to households all decreased as provisions of several federal programs expired or tapered off. The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the GDP estimate for the first quarter because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified.

Personal saving was $1.21 trillion in the first quarter, compared with $1.39 trillion in the fourth quarter. The personal saving rate -- personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income -- was 6.6 percent in the first quarter, compared with 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter..."

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The GDP is a very broad measure of economic activity for the entire United States, covering all sectors of the economy. The Commerce Department defines real GDP as, "the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States."

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