Economy Shrinks in Second Quarter, But Less Than Expected

From The Los Angeles Times:

The Commerce Department said today that the nation’s gross domestic product, or total goods and services produced, contracted in the second quarter at an annual pace of 1%. This marked a dramatic improvement from a decline of 6.4% and 5.4% recorded in the prior two quarters, and provided the latest evidence that the economy will start growing again shortly after entering recession in December 2007. [...]

Economists, who were expecting GDP to be down about 1.5% in the last quarter, were heartened by the new statistics. GDP is the broadest measure of economic activity.

“This report signals that the recession is quickly coming to an end and the subsequent recovery will be modest but better than I had thought before today’s numbers,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.