People walk past a homeless man outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street in New York on January 18, 2023.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
Although gross domestic product has been growing over the past few years, more than half of Americans believe the United States is in a recession.
According to a new Guardian/Harris PollFifty-six percent of respondents said they believe the U.S. is in a recession, and 58% said President Joe Biden is responsible for what they believe is a recession.
A recession is a prolonged period of economic decline, usually when gross domestic product declines for two or more consecutive fiscal quarters.
Under these conditions, the United States is definitely not in recession.
GDP growth in the first quarter of 2024 was 1.6%. U.S. GDP growth has consistently exceeded that of other developed countries.
Biden: ‘America has the best economy in the world’ Tell TODAY on NBC in April.
The Guardian/Harris poll is yet another example of the persistent gap between economic data and feelings that has plagued the Biden administration in recent months.
While there are some positive signs that the economy is recovering from the pandemic chaos that disrupted supply chains and soared inflation, consumer attitudes have lagged, often due to stubbornly high inflation that makes daily life costly.
The Guardian/Harris poll comes less than six months before the November election, in which Biden will face former President Donald Trump. The Biden campaign is working to sell the president’s economic record to voters and shift sentiment to acknowledge the U.S.’s economic success since the pandemic.
“We know our work is not done yet,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a January press briefing, acknowledging the gulf between the U.S. economy’s key data and how Americans are feeling.
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