US GDP declines with the start of Trump's term
The figure fell by 0.5%, the first drop in three years.
BarcelonaUS gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 0.5% in the first quarter year-on-year, three-tenths more than the previous estimate. This represents the first contraction in the world's largest economy in three years and reflects the impact of the policies initiated by Donald Trump upon his return to power.
The final revision of the January-March data published this Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) shows that the contraction was primarily due to the rise in imports—due to increased sales in the US before the tariffs went into effect—and the decline.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the US economy contracted 0.1%, only slightly more than the second estimate of the data. This latest downward revision to first-quarter GDP "mainly reflects downward revisions to consumer spending and exports, which were partially offset by a downward revision to imports."
Imports grew by 37.9% in the first three months of 2025, a considerable sum but revised down by almost 5 percentage points compared to the BEA's second estimate published a month ago. Similarly, exports grew by only 0.4% in January-March, 2 percentage points less than the estimate published in May, and household spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the US economy, advanced by 0.5%, seven-tenths less than in the previous revision.
Government spending fell by 0.7% in the first quarter, just one-tenth more than the BEA's second estimate, while private domestic investment grew by 23.8%, which represents about six-tenths less than the previous estimate.
Ultimately, compared to the fourth quarter, when the US economy grew 2.4%, the decline in first-quarter GDP mainly reflected a rebound in imports, a slowdown in consumer spending, and a drop in government spending, which were partially offset by a pick-up in investment, according to the BEA.
The increase in inventories in anticipation of the tariff policies activated by Donald Trump, who returned to the White House on January 20, ended up proving key to the nearly 40% increase in imports in January-March.
