The US GDP fell by 0.3% in the first quarter of this year, it was announced on Wednesday. The sharp economic contraction comes just 28 days after Donald Trump‘s self-described “Liberation Day”, which saw him slap tariffs on almost every country on earth.

Today, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimated that the country’s GDP had fallen by 0.3% in the period from January to March. The contraction was the first since the first quarter of 2022, where the US economy shrank by 1%.

Sky News Business presenter Darren McCaffrey said most economists are now “effectively expecting a recession this year in the United States”.

“That is not good news for Donald Trump,” he added. Economists from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had predicted an economic slowdown as a result of Washington’s tariffs.

“We expect that the sharp increase on April 2 in both tariffs and uncertainty will lead to a significant slowdown in global growth in the near term”, the foreword of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook report released on April 18 said.

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