The U.S. economy has decreased by 0.7 percent in the quarter extending from April to June, according to a Wednesday Commerce Department report. The dip in gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter follows the 6.4 percent annualized drop in the first three months of this year (the worst decline in nearly thirty years). In the final quarter of 2008, the economy sank at a rate of 5.4 percent. The new reading on second-quarter GDP shows the economy shrinking less than the 1 percent pace previously estimated. It also was better than the annualized 1.1 percent drop that economists were predicting. The final revision of second-quarter GDP comes on the last day of the third quarter, in which many analysts predict the economy started growing again at a pace of about 3 percent.
