A report from the Commerce Department showed on Thursday that the U.S. economy contracted more rapidly than initially thought in the first quarter of 2020, due to a downward revision to private inventory investment was partly offset by upward revisions to personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and nonresidential fixed investment.

According to the second estimate, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) fell at a 5.0 percent annual rate in the first quarter, faster than a 4.8 percent drop reported in the advance estimate.

Economists had expected the decline rate to stay unrevised at 4.8 percent, following the fourth quarter's increase of 2.1 percent.

The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter reflected negative contributions from PCE, private inventory investment, nonresidential fixed investment, and exports that were partly offset by positive contributions from residential fixed investment, federal government spending, and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, fell.