Bad Economic Numbers Pile Up for Trump Administration
GoLocalProv Business Team
Bad Economic Numbers Pile Up for Trump Administration
The U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of 2025, as businesses rushed to stock up on imports ahead of new tariffs and consumers slowed their spending pace.
The numbers are sobering.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“The Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced across the economy—fell at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted 0.3% annual rate in the first quarter. That was the steepest decline since the first quarter of 2022. The decline in GDP in the first quarter reflected front-running ahead of tariffs that began to come into effect during the first three months of the year and were dramatically increased in the current, second quarter. Imports rose at a 41.3% pace. Exports rose more slowly, at a 1.8% pace in the first quarter,” reported the Wall Street Journal.
Consumer Confidence Falls
On Tuesday, it was announced that consumer attitudes about both the present and near future dimmed again in April, as tariffs dented sentiment and confidence in employment hit levels last seen around the global financial crisis.
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell to the lowest reading in nearly five years.
Stock Market
The US stock market just recorded its worst first 100 days of any presidential term since President Gerald Ford assumed office in 1974.
“Given the ongoing uncertainty around US trade policy and the economic outlook more broadly, we suspect the going will get tougher from here,” said Jonas Goltermann, deputy chief markets economist at Capital Economics, in a Monday note cited by CNN.
Rhode Island Numbers Are Going Bad
As GoLocal recently reported, Rhode Island’s unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in March.
URI economist Leonard Lardaro warned, “Even if this is not the case, I have stated that I believe Rhode Island is currently in a ‘growth recession,’ where the rate of growth is not sufficient to keep the unemployment rate from rising. Worse yet, our state's employment rate (percentage of the population that is employed - either in or out-of-state) has fallen for nine consecutive months.”