⁍ The U.S. economy grew at a historic pace in the third quarter as the government injected more than $3 trillion worth of pandemic relief.

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⁍ But the deep scars from the COVID-19 recession could take a year or more to heal.

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⁍ The economy remains 3.5% below its level at the end of 2019 and incomes plunged in the third quarter.

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– The US economy sprang back to life in the third quarter, growing at a dizzying 33.1% annual rate, the Commerce Department announced Thursday—the best showing since back-to-back gains of 37.5% and 38% in the second and third quarters of 2000. The July-September advance in the gross domestic product—the country’s total output of goods and services—was even stronger than the 31% analysts had expected, reports the Wall Street Journal, which notes that the July-September quarter was the fastest since back-to-back gains of 38.4% and 38.9% in the second and third quarters of 2009. The surge in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the GDP, was a big factor in the rebound from a sharp contraction in the second quarter. But while the GDP report “will have absolutely zero effect on the election and it is economic performance in the first half of an election year that matters,” a Cornell University professor tells Reuters, the deep recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 222,000 people so far, is still taking a toll. “We still don’t have the level of GDP surpassing the pre-COVID level until fourth-quarter 2021 and closing the output gap will take even more time,” says an economist at NatWest Markets. “Without further stimulus, the winter may indeed be very painful.”