US recession is officially over

The US recession ended in June 2009, making it the longest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the National Bureau of Economic Research said yesterday.

The NBER, which is considered the arbiter of US recessions, said it chose that month based on examination of data including gross domestic product, employment and personal income. The group's business cycle dating committee, composed of academic economists, is notorious for taking its time in declaring the start and end of recessions.

The committee said it waited to make its decision this time because it wanted to review revised data on national income, released on 27 August, to get a clearer reading on the path of economic output in 2009. In the announcement, the NBER said any fresh downturn would mark a new recession, not a continuation of the one that began in December 2007.