Gross Domestic Income revised downward, undermining WH recession claims, Heritage expert says

A data point used by the Biden administration as evidence the country is not in a recession was revised this week in the latest batch of economic data released by the Commerce Department. And one expert tells Fox News Digital it's further evidence the country is in a recession.

The average of the gross domestic product and gross domestic income in the second quarter was revised downward from 0.4% growth to -0.3% after the GDI was revised downward from 1.4% to 0.1%, according to figures released by the Commerce Department this week.

The average of the GDP and GDI, known as Gross Domestic Output, in the first quarter was also revised into negative territory, the data shows.

The Treasury Department and some economists have cited growth in gross domestic income and the GDO figure in recent months as evidence the economy is recovering strongly and as a counter against shrinking GDP.

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"Our broad and inclusive recovery has outpaced that of many other large economies," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said earlier this month. "And measured by gross domestic income, our economy continues to expand and is operating above levels that would have been predicted pre-pandemic."

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The Treasury Department suggested in a July blog post titled "The Data Underlying America’s Strong Economic Recovery" that the continued divergence between GDP and GDI is "one important piece of evidence that shows stronger growth for the U.S. economy."

The blog entry added that GDO "provides a rule of thumb to infer the true rate of economic growth."

EJ Antoni, research fellow in regional economics with The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, told Fox News Digital the revised numbers confirm the country is in a recession and damages the argument from the Biden administration saying otherwise.

"Basically, the Biden administration, I think, was just kind of looking for any kind of positive news to seize on to deflect from the fact that we are in a recession," Antoni said. "So, the unusually large disparity between GDP and GDI was what they seized on and, of course, now it’s come back to bite them because it turns out that the GDI was nowhere near as high as they thought it was, neither for the second quarter and most of the first quarter."

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Antoni added that the "obscure" data point was the "only thing" the Biden administration could "hang their hat on," and it is "strangely silent" about it now that it has "turned against them."

"Simply put, the Biden administration has no data points left behind which it can hide — the recession is confirmed," Antoni wrote in the Daily Signal this week.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

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GDP, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the nation, officially shrank at a 1.6% annualized pace in the three-month period from January to March and declined a 0.6% pace between April and June, meeting the criteria for a so-called technical recession.

Fox News' Megan Henney contributed to this report