On Thursday, President Joe Biden told reporters that he is "not concerned" about a recession, despite the fact that mere hours earlier, the Commerce Department announced that the United States economy shrank 1.4% in the first quarter of 2022.
Gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, shrank by 1.4% on an annualized basis in the three-month period from January through March, the Commerce Department said in its first reading of the data on Thursday.
Refinitiv economists expected the report to show the economy had expanded by 1.1%. It marked the worst performance since the spring of 2020, when the U.S. economy was still deep in the throes of the COVID-induced recession.
When a reporter asked Biden how concerned he is about a recession, he replied that he is not.
"Well, I'm not concerned about recession," Biden said. "And I mean, you're always concerned about a recession, but the GDP, fell to 1.4%."
BIDEN: "I'm not concerned about a recession. I mean, you're always concerned about recession." pic.twitter.com/gSkA3O9bL9
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 28, 2022
"But, here’s the deal," he continued. "We also had last quarter consumer spending and business investment and residential investment increased at significant rates, both for leisure as well as hard products."
Biden also claimed that unemployment is at its "lowest rate since 1970" and that "a record 4.5 million businesses were created last year."
Can I get a fact check on that? I'm not buying it.
"We're in a situation where we have a very different view than Senator Scott of Republicans that want to raise taxes on the middle class families and want to include half of small business owners," Biden added