U.S. economy shrinks 3.5% in pandemic-hit 2020, worst year since 1946

The U.S. economy shrank 3.5 percent in 2020, marking the worst performance since 1946 as the coronavirus pandemic weighed on business activities and left millions out of work, Commerce Department data showed Thursday.While the world's largest economy is recovering from the depths of the initial pandemic-induced plunge, the annualized real gross domestic product in the October to December period grew by only 4.0 percent, a sharp slowdown from the 33.4 percent growth in the preceding quarter.Private consumption, which accounts for two-thirds of the world's largest economy, grew 2.5 percent in…READ FULL ARTICLE