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The United States saw substantial economic growth in the final three months of 2021 — and, for the entire year, saw the largest expansion in almost 40 years, the Commerce Department said in a report on Thursday.
The department released its report showing how the economy performed in the fourth quarter, which put together the growth picture for the entire year.
According to the report, U.S. gross domestic product — the total output of all goods and services — increased by 5.7 percent for all of 2021. That’s the largest growth for any year since 1984, when the figure was over 7 percent. On both occasions, the U.S. economy was rebounding from a recession.
For the final quarter, which covers October through December, economic growth was 6.9 percent — well above the 5.5 percent most economists predicted.
“The increase in fourth-quarter GDP reflected the continued economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the department said in a statement. “In the fourth quarter, COVID-19 cases resulted in continued restrictions and disruptions in the operations of establishments in some parts of the country. Government assistance payments in the form of forgivable loans to businesses, grants to state and local governments, and social benefits to households all decreased as provisions of several federal programs expired or tapered off.”
Since July 2020, at the peak of the first wave of COVID-19, the U.S. economy has grown for six consecutive quarters — including a 33 percent expansion in the third quarter of that year. Growth was almost 7 percent in the second quarter of 2021 and 6.4 percent in the first.
