US Economy Shrank 2.9% in first quarter, worst drop since '09

The U.S. economy shrank at a steep annual rate of 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014, the fastest rate of decline since the first quarter of 2009, the US Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

The agency initially reported in April that the economy had expanded at a 0.1 percent rate in the first quarter of this year. The Commerce Department later revised that estimate in June and said that the economy actually shrank by 1 percent. But today the agency revised that number a second time and said that the US economy had actually taken a 2.9 percent nosedive.

The difference between the agency's second and third revision was the largest on records since 1976.