⁍ The Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the latest U.S. gross domestic product report on Thursday.
⁍ It may be the most fought-over piece of economic data since the measure of broad productive output came into common use in the 1940s.
⁍ Republicans will point to the record-shattering scorecard as evidence that President Donald Trump is working miracles in getting the U.S. economy back on its feet from the drubbing delivered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
⁍ Democrats backing their party’s challenger Joe Biden will counter it shows Trump is bungling the country’s future.
– The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the GDP report for the third quarter on Thursday, and it’s expected to show that the US economy grew at a dizzying 37% annual rate in July, August, and September. That’s a record, and it comes after a record drop in the second quarter, but it still leaves the economy in a huge hole compared with where it was before the start of President Trump’s term, reports Reuters. If the forecast holds, it will show that the US economy has regained about 71% of the $2.2 trillion in output lost this year as the coronavirus pandemic forced consumers to stay home and businesses to shutter. But it will also illustrate how deeply in the hole it is compared with before the crisis and the last time the US economy was in a severe downturn. During the worst stretch of the Great Recession, the economy shrank about $450 billion. For comparison, during the worst stretch of the Great Recession, the economy shrank about $450 billion. So in fact, the report will show the US economy has never done better over any three-month period of its modern history. But it will also illustrate how deeply in the hole it is compared with before the crisis and the last time the US economy was in a severe downturn. And now, with coronavirus cases continuing their surge, it will be one more piece of data that voters will want to weigh as they decide whether Trump or Biden is best placed to lever the rebound into a full recovery.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election-economy-data/update-1-graphic-best-of-times-or-the-worst-a-voters-guide-to-us-gdp-idUSL1N2HJ263