The Great Recession ended in June 2009, according to the body charged with dating when recessions begin and end, CNNMoney.com reports.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, an independent group of economists, released a statement Monday saying economic data now clearly points to the economy turning higher last summer.
That makes the 18-month recession that started in December 2007 the longest and deepest downturn for the U.S. economy since the Great Depression.
The NBER said that its committee that made the finding “did not conclude that economic conditions since that month have been favorable or that the economy has returned to operating at normal capacity.”
Rather, it decided that June was when the economy hit bottom, and that it has been slowly but steadily growing since then.
“Economic activity is typically below normal in the early stages of an expansion, and it sometimes remains so well into the expansion,” the NBER said.
Most economists have been saying for months that the recession likely ended in the summer of 2009. But the NBER typically takes a long time to declare the start and end of recessions, waiting for all the economic data to be revised and finalized and making sure that any change in direction of the economy is long-lasting. It didn’t declare that the recession started in December of 2007 until a year later.
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But Monday’s announcement comes at a time when there is growing concern among many economists that the U.S. economy is in danger of slipping into another downturn, a so-called double-dip recession. Measures of economic growth, hiring and other signs of recovery have all weakened in recent months.
The NBER acknowledged the risk of double-dip recession in its statement, but said “The committee decided that any future downturn of the economy would be a new recession and not a continuation of the recession that began in December 2007. The basis for this decision was the length and strength of the recovery to date.”Â
