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It means that the media and tw have to come up with other reasons to report that the US in a recession, other than the dictionary definition of it which says it is not. It means the economy is in decent shape to weather the remaining storms it has to see through. It means our trading partners can relax a little. It means LJ will stay busy doing deals. Hopefully it means the job market can stop shrugging off jobs.
GDP = Gross Domestic Product, roughly how many dollars moved around that period. Dictionary definition: The total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports. Dictionary definition of recession: A period of general economic decline; specifically, a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters.
This latest set of numbers revised the 4th Q 2007 to -0.2%, 1st Q 2008 to +0.9%, 2nd Q 2008 Estimate to +1.9%. Since the final numbers don't indicate two consecutive quarters of negatives, there was not a "dictionary definition" recession, or there is not one yet ongoing.
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