The economy grew at a 5.7% annual rate in 2021, the fastest rate since 1984, as the country shook off the worst of the pandemic, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Wednesday.
The numbers, adjusted for inflation, were in part fueled by a surprisingly strong fourth quarter. The gross domestic product grew at a robust 6.9% annualized rate to close out the year, which was far stronger than the growth in the third quarter and better than forecasters had expected.
The omicron variant of COVID-19 overlapped with the end of the fourth quarter but appears to have been little more than a speed bump along the country’s economic recovery after the deadlier delta variant slowed growth over the summer.COVID-19 has been in rapid decline since mid-January, when new cases peaked at about 800,000 per day. New cases are now averaging less than 30,000 per day, an 11% decrease from two weeks ago.
Additionally, the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.8%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported earlier this month — the lowest since the start of the pandemic and near the lowest levels of the past half-century.
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