The National Bureau of Economic Research, which is tasked with dating business cycles, announced this morning that the recession ended in June 2009, making the 18-month downturn the longest recession since World War II.
NBER noted that, “the committee did not conclude that economic conditions since that month have been favorable or that the economy has returned to operating at normal capacity. Rather, the committee determined only that the recession ended and a recovery began in that month.”
The committee also determined that any future economic downturn would count as a new recession rather than a continuation of the recession that began in December 2007.
