Economy looks even bleaker as GDP revised down to 6.2% fall

WASHINGTON -- The economy contracted at a staggering 6.2% annual pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, as consumers and businesses ratcheted back spending, plunging the country deeper into recession.

The Commerce Department report released Friday showed the gross domestic product sinking much faster than the 3.8% annualized drop for the October-December quarter first estimated last month. It also was considerably weaker than the 5.4% annualized decline economists expected.

GDP is the value of all goods and services produced in the United States and is the best barometer of the country's economic health.

A much sharper cutback in consumer spending — which accounts for about two-thirds of economic activity — along with a bigger drop in U.S. exports sales, and reductions in business spending and inventories all contributed to the large downgrade.

Looking ahead, economists predict consumers and businesses will keep cutting back spending, making the first six months of this year especially rocky.

"Right now we're in the period of maximum recession stress, where the big cuts are being made," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.

The report offered grim proof that the economy's economic tailspin accelerated in the fourth quarter under a slew of negative forces feeding on each other. The economy started off 2008 on feeble footing, picked up a bit of speed in the spring and then contracted at an annualized rate of 0.5% in the third quarter.

The faster downhill slide in the final quarter of last year came as the financial crisis intensified.

Consumers at the end of the year slashed spending by the most in 28 years. They chopped spending on cars, furniture, appliances, clothes and other things. Businesses retrenched sharply, too, dropping the ax on equipment and software, home building and commercial construction.

Before Friday's report was released, many economists were projecting an annualized drop of 5% in the current January-March quarter. However, given the fourth quarter's showing and the dismal state of the jobs market, Mayland believes a decline of closer to 6% in the current quarter is possible.