The US economy suffered the hardest shock since 1946 in 2020

In front of a closed store on 5th Avenue during the Covid-19 epidemic in New York.

REUTERS - Mike Segar

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

It's official, in 2020 the US economy suffered the hardest shock since the end of World War II.

As a result of the pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis, activity in the world's largest economy fell 3.5%, according to data released by the Commerce Department.

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The detailed figures show that the continuation of the epidemic in the fourth quarter and especially the temporary absence of support measures weighed on household consumption.

Admittedly, at the end of the year the US economy grew by 4% of GDP, but this recovery has nothing to do with the performance recorded between July and September, when activity jumped by more than 33%. .

In addition, growth is expected to continue to slow in the first quarter of this year.

The change could come from the

Biden administration's

vaccination campaign

and new

stimulus package

.

The new president hopes that his package of measures representing 1.9 trillion dollars will be accepted by Congress where he has a majority.

Because the needs are enormous.

The recession affected primarily services, catering, tourism and hotels, activities in which the share of low-paid workers, women and minorities is much higher than the national average.

At the same time,

poverty has increased

with an additional 8 million poor Americans.

Read also: United States: recession, Covid-19 crisis, the first challenges of Joe Biden's team

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