The U.S. economic recession that occurred during the earliest stages of the coronavirus pandemic began after February 2020 and lasted just two months, making it the shortest on record. The determination, announced Monday, was made by the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The New York Times' Ben Casselman notes that the recession was so brief that by the time the NBER officially declared a recession in June 2020 it was, at least according to Monday's finding, already over. Previously, a 6-month downturn in the first half of 1980 was considered the shortest recession.
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