WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy shrank during the first quarter of this year for the first time since 2020.
Gross domestic product fell at a 1.4% annualized rate in the first three months of this year, following a 6.9% pace at the end of last year, the Commerce Department’s preliminary estimate showed Thursday. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 1% increase.
The contraction was due to a jump in imports and a drop in exports, coupled with a slower buildup of businesses’ stockpiles. On a year-over-year basis, the economy grew 3.6%.
Together, trade and inventories subtracted about 4 percentage points from headline growth. Government spending shrank, also weighing on GDP.
But real final sales to domestic purchasers, a measure of…
