The United States experienced weak economic growth in the first quarter, with rare negative growth.

As concerns about economic recession spread from Washington to Wall Street, data released by the US government on Wednesday showed that, after seasonal adjustments, real GDP contracted by 0.3%, while economists had forecasted a growth of 0.4%, a significant decrease from the 2.4% growth in the previous quarter. Data from key economic indicators suggest that Wednesday's GDP data could be even worse; the Atlanta Federal Reserve's GDPNow model predicts a 0.4% decline in GDP for the first quarter, excluding gold imports and exports, while Goldman Sachs' tracking model shows a 0.2% contraction. This is the weakest economic growth in the US since the first quarter of 2022. Negative GDP growth in the US is rare, having occurred only three times in the past 10 years.