According to final estimates release by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, US real gross domestic product - the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States - decreased at an annual rate of 5.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009,that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter. In the fourth quarter, real GDP decreased 6.3 percent.

The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, equipment and software, private inventory investment, nonresidential structures, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive contribution from personal consumption expenditures (PCE). Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.

Source: BEA