NBER’s announcement means the country’s longest expansion lasted exactly 120 months; the previous record for uninterrupted economic growth was set in the 1960s.
"The committee is satisfied that the total contraction in the economy is sufficient to merit the determination that a recession is under way," NBER said, adding that the U.S. might have escaped a recession if it wasn’t for the September 11 terrorist attacks. "The attacks clearly deepened the contraction and may have been an important factor in turning the episode into a recession.”
The NBER looks at four major economic indicators to gauge the economy's health. Indicators of industrial production, employment and wholesale-retail trade were well within recession territory, the economists said.
``The president has been worried about the strength of the economy for a long period of time,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. ``If today's report indicates from an economic or statistical point of view that we're in a recession, that makes it even more important for the Senate to take action.”
