Amid the tumult of the Trump administration, official data revealing the US economy shrank in the first quarter of this year were hardly surprising.

However, while it had been looking increasingly likely ahead of this publication that the figures could reveal a contraction, confirmation of this reality is clearly not good news.

The annualised rate of decline of 0.3% in the first quarter, unveiled by the US Commerce Department, was not steep. However, it contrasted with an annualised pace of growth of 2.4% in the final three months of last year, before Mr Trump returned as President.

There has been little cheer on the UK or global economic front of late, to put it mildly, with Mr Trump’s moves to implement tariffs on imports to the US having exacerbated what was already a tough outlook.

That said, an analogy from one analyst in the immediate wake of Wednesday’s news that the world’s largest economy had shrunk in the opening three months of 2025 offered a moment of amusement amid the misery.

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at stockbroker AJ Bell, said: “There’s that feeling in your gut and then there’s seeing it in black and white. For investors, the cold hard data that showed the US economy contracted over the first three months of the year was a bit like realising you’ve been sat in a bath for too long. You knew things were getting chilly but you kind of hoped someone would turn on the hot tap before it got too cold.”

It seemed like an apposite parallel.

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© Herald Scotland