recovery

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The U.S. economy began its recovery in mid-2009. Real gross domestic product (GDP) has been on a positive track since then, although the pace has been uneven and slow relative to the previous post-war economic recoveries. From the second half of 2009 and through 2010 real GDP increased at an annualized rate of 2.5%.

The stock market has recovered from its lows, and employment has increased moderately. On the other hand, significant economic weakness remains evident, particularly in the balance sheet of households, the labor market, and the housing sector.

Congress was an active participant in the policy responses to this crisis and has an ongoing interest in macroeconomic conditions. Current macroeconomic concerns include whether the economy is in a sustained recovery, rapidly reducing unemployment, speeding a return to normal output and employment growth, and addressing government’s long-term debt problem.
While business investment spending has been relatively strong during the recovery, consumer spending, typically accounting for two-thirds of final demand has been relatively weak.
Moreover, in 2011-2012, the sharply fading effects of fiscal stimulus and weaker growth in
Europe have likely dampened economic growth. Nonetheless, economic activity in the private economy shows signs of slow but steady improvement. Several areas are prominent:

• Credit conditions have improved, consumers and businesses get loans easier, and constraints on many types of credit supported expenditures have been loosened. The Fed’s January 2013 survey of senior loan officers indicated that, on net, bank lending standards and terms continued to ease during the previous three months in addition to the increase in demand for commercial and industrial lo...

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...ing signs of recovery, is likely to continue to fall short of its typical role in economic recoveries. Although the value of household’s financial assets have increased since 2009, the value of their real estate assets have not, which is furthermore decreasing consumer spending.
• Growth in the UK and the Euro region has been weak and fiscal austerity measures to stop the growth of public debt have pushed the area back into recession, slowing growth further. The slow growth is this region in turn has slowed the rate of the U.S. recovery in 2012 and 2013, the UK and Euro region being a major U.S. export market.
• Since 2010, fiscal policy has tightened considerably and federal government expenditures have contracted 2.8% in 2011 and 2.2% in 2012, which dampened further the economic growth. Moreover, the current budget debate shows further fiscal contractions in 2013.

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