NEW YORK, July 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. economy contracted for the second straight quarter, with growth falling at a 0.9 percent annual rate in the April-June period, fanning new debate about the faltering economy and adding to the Joe Biden administration's mounting political headaches, reported Axios on Thursday.
"The data comes after GDP fell at a 1.6 percent annualized rate in the first three months of the year, as trade weighed on headline growth," said the report.
Two back-to-back quarters of negative growth are a common rule of thumb that a recession is underway, but an independent group of economists evaluated a range of indicators to determine whether a recession is occurring, including the labor market, which remains solid, according to the report.
"They haven't called it (recession) yet," said the report, noting that consumer spending, a significant contributor to economic activity, slowed to 1 percent, 0.8 percentage point less from the prior period. Meanwhile, Americans are rotating from spending on stuff to services.
In the most recent quarter, growth took a hit as businesses slowed inventory investments after aggressively building them up to meet demand and combat supply chain woes. So-called change in inventories knocked more than 2 percentage points off headline growth, it added. ■