News release: “Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — decreased at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, (that is, from the second quarter to the third quarter), according to final estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.8 percent…Most of the major components contributed to the downturn in real GDP growth in the third quarter. The largest contributors were a sharp downturn in PCE, a deceleration in exports, a smaller decrease in imports, a deceleration in nonresidential structures, a larger decrease in equipment and software, and a deceleration in state and local government spending. Notable offsets were an upturn in inventory investment and an acceleration in federal government spending.”