U.S. records 0.7% negative Q1 growth

Economists say the poor economic performance is primarily attributable to harsh winter weather and West Coast port disruptions.    The U.S. economy contracted 0.7 percent in the first quarter, according to the latest estimates by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The government previously said, based on preliminary data, that the economy grew 0.2 percent in the January-March period.
   The GDP decrease is in contrast to the 2.2 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2014. U.S. productivity also shrank 1 percent in the first quarter of 2014, before bouncing back to average 2.4 percent growth on an annualized basis.
   Economists attributed the negative first quarter growth to bad winter weather across much of the United States that kept consumers at home and made it difficult for shippers to get goods to stores, as well as the port congestion that resulted from a contract standoff between unionized longshoremen and port operators on the West Coast.
   Real exports of goods dropped 14 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, while imports increased 5.1 percent compared with an increase of 10.4 percent in the busy pre-holiday period last year. Exports were also suppressed by the strong dollar, which makes U.S. products more expensive in other countries.
   Many experts have scaled back their U.S. growth projections for 2015 to 2 percent.