Apr 23, 2020 - Economy
Imminent GDP numbers will quantify severity of America's economic collapse

- Courtenay Brown, author ofAxios Macro

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
U.S. first quarter GDP data comes out on Wednesday. Estimates are all over the map for how the economy held up through the end of March — while most of the quarter was fine, the last couple of weeks were terrible.
Why it matters: The economy is undeniably in a recession, though official data is slow to confirm that. The Q1 figures will begin to quantify the damage.
- Analysts' forecasts range enormously, between +1.9% annualized growth on the high end and -10% on the low end. The median forecast, per FactSet, is for a 3.5% annualized drop. There hasn't been a decline that steep since 2009.
- Data for the current quarter will certainly be far uglier. That will be released on July 30.