Official: Recession Started in December 2007
Yep, we have been in a recession for a year…
The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research met by conference call on Friday, November 28. The committee maintains a chronology of the beginning and ending dates (months and quarters) of U.S. recessions. The committee determined that a peak in economic activity occurred in the U.S. economy in December 2007. The peak marks the end of the expansion that began in November 2001 and the beginning of a recession. The expansion lasted 73 months; the previous expansion of the 1990s lasted 120 months.
A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income, and other indicators. A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion.
Because a recession is a broad contraction of the economy, not confined to one sector, the committee emphasizes economy-wide measures of economic activity. The committee believes that domestic production and employment are the primary conceptual measures of economic activity.
NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee: Determination of the December 2007 Peak in Economic Activity
Before you ask:
Q: How long does the committee expect the recession to last?
A: The committee does not forecast.
August 15th, 2009 at 9:44 am
i am hoping that the global economy would recover from this economic recession. life has been very hard with these massive job cuts.