Fourth-Quarter GDP Contracts 6.3%

The U.S. economy contracted at an annual rate of  6.3% rate in the fourth quarter, marking the biggest contraction since 1982, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

The downturn in the gross domestic product followed a 0.5% contraction in the third quarter, and the back-to-back declines were the first since 1991, Bloomberg reported.

The figure was the final of Commerce’s three GDP estimates and topped previous reported downturns of 6.2%, released last month, and 3.8%, released in January.

The 6.3% drop was not as great as the 6.6% decline that was forecast by economists, Bloomberg reported.

Consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, fell at a 4.3% annual rate in the quarter, matching a previous Commerce estimate.

The economy grew at a rate of 1.1% for the all of 2008, matching previous estimates, Commerce said.

Corporate profits fell last year by 10.1%, the biggest decline since 1970, and fell 16.5% in the fourth quarter, the biggest decline since 1953, Bloomberg reported.