U.S. COVID-19 RECESSION LASTED JUST TWO MONTHS

The U.S. recession touched off by the coronavirus lasted only two months, ending with a low point reached in April 2020 after the start of a sharp drop in economic activity in March of that year, the U.S. Business Cycle Dating Committee announced Monday. The committee, a group of macroeconomists who assign the start and end dates of U.S. business cycles, said that while the country had by no means gotten back to normal operating capacity at that point, indicators of both jobs and production “point clearly to April 2020 as the month of the trough,” with a rebound beginning in May. Indeed, the resumption of growth was so rapid the committee said it was only “the unprecedented magnitude of the decline” that led members to consider what happened to be a recession in the first place.