The U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years at the beginning of 2025 as a surge of imports ahead of Trump’s tariffs pulled GDP negative in the first quarter.
The Details: Gross domestic product declined by 0.3% on an annualized basis during the January–March period. The reading fell short of analyst expectations, which had forecast a modest slowdown to 0.4% growth.
On the jobs front, Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported that private employers added only 62,000 jobs in April, well below economists’ expectations of 108,000.
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Expert Ideas: Most economists agree that first-quarter GDP was “clouded” by a rush of imports as businesses increased inventories ahead of the implementation of Trump’s tariff policies.
Jason Furman, professor of economics at Harvard University, highlighted that …