Key control
- The United States GDP is expected to have grown at an annual rate of only 0.3% in the first quarter, a strong slowdown of 2.4% in the previous quarter.
- If it materializes, the deceleration would probably reflect the impact of an increase in imports: people ran to buy things ahead of President Donald Trump’s rates, and imports count against GDP growth.
- The deceleration would be one of the first indicators of “hard data” that show the economic impact of tariffs.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs have taken to affect hard economic data, but that could change Wednesday when import taxes could fly a hole in gross figures of the domestic product.
It is likely that Wednesday’s scheduled GDP report shows that the key measure of the country’s economic production increased at an annual rate of only 0.4% in the first quarter, according to the average forecast of a survey of economists conducted by the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. That would decrease from 2.4% in the last quarter of 2024 and the slowest growth since 2022.
Economists said that the strong deceleration in growth will probably reflect the impact of an increase in imports: people ran to buy things abroad before President Donald Trump’s tariffs come into force, and imports subtract from GDP.
Some forecasts think that the fall will be even more drastic than consensus and expect the economy to be reduced for the first time since 2022. GDP GDP of the Federal Reserve of Atlanta, which calculates GDP based on economic data as published, showed that GDP was reduced at an annual rate of 2.5% in the first quarter.
The GDP report would be one of the first indicators of “hard data” to show the impact of Trump’s tariff series against US business partners., Which began in February and reached a high point in April. Surveys have shown that companies and people who grow pessimistic about the economy due to tariffs, but key economic indicators, including unemployment and inflation, have remained resistant so far.
