Earlier this month, the UK revealed its latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures, which demonstrated slower growth than most predictions. A similar trend is expected in the US, though officials there are still anticipating healthy growth in 2022 regardless of the knock-on effects created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to estimates from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, US GDP for the first quarter of 2022 is predicted to have risen by 0.7 percent.
Meanwhile, economists surveyed by Reuters believe Thursday’s figures will show the US economy grew at an annualised rate of one percent in the first three months of the year.
Both figures are significantly lower than the 6.9 percent surge witnessed in the final quarter of 2021.
Despite the subdued early forecast, GDP growth is expected to pick up once more as the year progresses.
By the end of 2022, the International Monetary Fund anticipates the US will see its GDP grow by 3.7 percent.
In 2021, businesses produced greater stock levels than they sold in quarter four, driving inventories higher.
As a result, this elevated GDP growth significantly beyond what had been predicted, though experts do not expect this pattern to have been replicated in the first quarter of 2022.
Rising prices for energy and food are also forecast to have played a role in slowing GDP growth for the US.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has helped to exacerbate these concerns while existing supply chain issues are also helping to contract the economy.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said GDP increased by just 0.1 percent, falling short of the 0.3 percent growth predicted by most analysts.
Growth has slowed sharply ever since January when GDP jumped by 0.8 percent as people returned to normal life, following a surge in Omicron cases last December.
Last year GDP in Britain grew by 7.5 percent, representing the fastest annual growth rate since World War 2.
In comparison, GDP for the US in 2021 swelled by an even greater degree (10.1 percent).
Heading into 2022, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) ranked the UK as the fifth-largest global economy – second biggest in Europe behind Germany.
The US was ranked as the greatest economy in the world where it is forecast to remain until 2031.
At this point, China’s economic growth is expected to crown it as the world’s economic leader, taking over from the US.