Summary
The US economy shrank in the first three months of 2025, with GDP falling 0.3 per cent, partly because of a surge in imports in anticipation of President Trump's tariffs. Mr Trump says growth is on track; we hear from an economist.
Also in the programme: the US and Ukraine appear poised to sign a revised minerals deal; 50 years after the fall of Saigon, we hear from the former US marine who flew one of the last helicopters out of Vietnam; plus the Rwandan vet who's just won a prize for saving the majestic grey-crowned crane.
(IMAGE: US President Trump hosts Cabinet Meeting at the White House, Washington, USA - 30 Apr 2025 / CREDIT: Ken Cedeno/Pool/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to News Air from the BBC World Service. We're coming to you live from London. I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:10.6 | Leading up to November's presidential election in the United States, the number one issue for most voters was the economy and in particular rising prices. |
| 0:19.9 | Donald Trump campaigned and won on a promise to bring down |
| 0:22.9 | inflation and give a sharp boost to growth. It would be the golden age of America, he said |
| 0:28.0 | shortly after taking office. Well, today saw the release of the latest figures on America's |
| 0:32.6 | economic output or GDP, and they show that instead of growing, the economy actually shrank by an annualized |
| 0:39.7 | 0.3% during the first three months of the year. In the final three months of last year, it grew by |
| 0:46.4 | 2.4%. But at the White House earlier, President Trump said today's contraction was his predecessor, |
| 0:53.1 | Joe Biden's fault. |
| 0:54.6 | Core GDP, and this is, you know, you probably saw some numbers today. |
| 0:58.6 | And I have to start up by saying, that's Biden. |
| 1:00.9 | That's not Trump, because we came in on January, this is a quarterly numbers. |
| 1:05.4 | But we took over his mess in so many different ways. |
| 1:09.2 | Core GDP, removing distortions from imports, inventories, and government |
| 1:14.3 | spending was up plus 3% when you add it. We had numbers that despite what we were handed, |
| 1:21.7 | we turned them around and we were getting them really turned around. So Mr. Trump says core GDP is in pretty good shape |
| 1:28.4 | once you strip out the effect of high levels of imports. |
| 1:32.0 | Is he right? |
| 1:33.0 | A question for Eswar Prasad, |
| 1:34.6 | is professor of trade policy at Cornell University in the US? |
| 1:38.6 | So he's certainly right in terms of a mechanical description, |
| 1:42.0 | but it's worth thinking about what policies are driving |
... |
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