Economic growth slowing in the U.S. so far this year, according to recent study

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - New data just released on Wednesday, showing that U.S. economic growth has slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2025.

The slowdown comes amid growing concerns that President Trump's tariffs could disrupt the economy. The GDP, or gross domestic product, is the sum of all goods and services produced in the U.S., and from January to March, it fell 0.3%.

This is the first quarter of negative growth since 2022. Experts were anticipating the GDP to come in at 0.4% growth, but instead it was a decline. According to Mark Teed, the Senior Vice President at Raymond James Associates, there is an explanation for the drop.

"The big reason is, everybody knew the tariffs were coming, so everybody rushed to get all their imports in before April 2, Liberation Day," Teed said. "That was like a 41% increase in imports, so that skewed everything from positive to negative."

Teed did say the underlying economy is still in good shape, and unless the trade deals go bad quickly, the market is anticipating a pick up by the end of the year. He said this should not have an impact on consumers.