07.30.2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Impact on the Second-Quarter 2020 GDP Estimate: The decline in second quarter GDP reflected the response to COVID-19 as “stay-at-home” orders issued in March and April were partially lifted in some areas of the country in May and June and government pandemic assistance payments were distributed to households and businesses. This led to rapid shifts in activity as businesses and schools continued remote work and consumers and businesses canceled restricted or redirected their spending. The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the GDP estimate for the second quarter of 2020 because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020 according to the ""advance"" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter real GDP decreased 5.0 percent. The decrease in real GDP reflected decreases in personal consumption expenditures (PCE) exports private inventory investment nonresidential fixed investment residential fixed investment and state and local government spending that were partly offset by an increase in federal government spending. Imports which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP decreased. The decrease in PCE reflected decreases in services (led by health care) and goods (led by clothing and footwear). The decrease in exports primarily reflected a decrease in goods (led by capital goods). The decrease in private inventory investment primarily reflected a decrease in retail (led by motor vehicle dealers). The decrease in nonresidential fixed investment primarily reflected a decrease in equipment (led by transportation equipment) while the decrease in residential investment primarily reflected a decrease in new single-family housing.
