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Data released Wednesday showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly shrank for the second straight quarter this year,

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 signaling the start of a technical slowdown, although economists expect signs of a slowdown in the next quarter, perhaps

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According to advance estimates, GDP contracted at an annualized pace of 0.9% for the period.

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"When you're creating about 400,000 jobs a month, it's not a recession," she said. However, any way you cut it, the economy has weakened.

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This followed a 1.6% decline in the first quarter and worse than the Dow Jones estimate of a 0.3% gain.

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The White House has gone back on calling the current economy a recession. There is no doubt that the role of economy in mid-term elections is well known.

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The government blamed the worse-than-expected figures on housing investment, federal government spending and falling business inventories, 

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but said growth in exports and spending had helped improve economic activity, which was down 1.6% in the last quarter.