Blowout US GDP Report Will Obscure Troubling Slowdown

(@FahadShabbir)

Blowout US GDP report will obscure troubling slowdown

Washington, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Oct, 2020 ) :After the worst downturn on record, the US economy is expected to post jaw-dropping growth of between 30 and 35 percent in the third quarter, but the headline number will obscure potential signs of trouble.

With days before the November 3 election, President Donald Trump will almost certainly seize on the data to be released Thursday by the Commerce Department as proof the recovery he promised from the Covid-19 pandemic is underway.

But economists warn that the rebound in the July-September period, after the 31.

4 percent drop in the second quarter, was driven by consumer spending supported by a massive $3 trillion in government aid, much of which has since expired.

And even that bounce is not nearly strong enough to repair the damage and get the world's largest economy back to where it was pre-pandemic, or where it would have been if the expansion had continued at the same pace.

The gain is "not enough to get out of (the) hole," Diane Swonk of Grant Thornton told AFP, and the prospects for the fourth quarter are "deteriorating by the day, without life boats."