Real gross domestic product decreased at an annual rate of 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to final estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the preliminary estimates, the decrease in real GDP was 6.2 percent. As we expected, the final numbers for fourth quarter GDP confirmed what we knew about the end of last, and even piled on an extra tenth of bad news.
The weakness was also confirmed by the corporate profits figure released along with GDP. Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) decreased $250.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with a decrease of $18.5 billion in the third quarter.
With no more PFEI releases on my calendar and this report easily classified as bad news, the good-news diffusion index finishes the month with a value of 42.1, compared with 21.1 in February.
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