The coronavirus pandemic triggered the sharpest economic contraction in modern American history, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Gross domestic product - the broadest measure of economic activity - shrank at an annual rate of 32.9% in the second quarter, as restaurants and retailers closed their doors in a desperate effort to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 150,000 people in the U.S.

The economic shock in April, May and June was more than three times as sharp as the previous record - 10% in 1958 - and nearly four times the worst quarter during the Great Recession.

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