Fed government revises first-quarter GDP, contraction worse than originally estimated

The Commerce Department has revised its first-quarter real gross domestic estimate to show the U.S. economy contracted at an annualized rate of 1.5%, compared to its original estimate in late April of 1.4%.

The revised number released Friday shows the economy is in worse shape than previously thought and marks the worst quarter since the second of 2020, during the height of the pandemic.

"America's economic situation is worse than the Biden administration originally estimated and the initial data for the month of April from the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics points to continued trouble in the second quarter," said EJ Antoni, an economics research fellow with the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation, in Washington, D.C. "The blame for this economic contraction lays squarely at the feet of the Biden administration, Congress and the Federal Reserve."

He also said the administration's curtailment of U.S. energy production has artificially increased costs on just about everything while the Federal Reserve's "monetary malfeasance is fleecing the American people through the hidden tax of inflation."