US economy in recession
02-12-2008
A leading economic research organisation in the United States says the country is officially in recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research says that the American economy has been in decline since December 2007 when it reached its peak. It warned that the downturn could be the worst since World War Two. The body said its business cycle dating committee members met by conference call on Friday and concluded that the economic expansion that started in November 2001 had ended. The previous period of economic expansion, which ended in 2001, lasted 10 years. The current recession, which many economists expect to persist through the middle of next year, is already the third-longest since the Great Depression, behind only the 16-month slumps of the mid-1970s and early 1980s. The announcement caused US share prices to plunge further after already showing substantial falls. After the announcement, the Dow Jones index in New York was down by over five per cent. The main indicexes in London and Paris were also more than five per cent down when they closed. The losses came after large rises in share prices last week.
