THE Great Recession in America more than earned that title. But by international standards, it was not that bad.
The recession caused a greater decline in gross domestic product in the United States than any American downturn since World War II. It is also in the process of setting the record for the longest downturn, measured in the time it takes for the economy to recover to its prerecession level.
Yet among the world’s major industrialized economies, the American recession was among the least severe. And the United States is ahead of most other countries in recovering the lost ground.
From the peak level of economic activity in the fourth quarter of 2007, the American economy shrank 4.1 percent by the time it hit bottom in the second quarter of 2009. Since then, it has recovered most of what was lost, but the size of the economy remains 1.3 percent below the peak, according to preliminary figures for the second quarter of this year.
The accompanying charts show detailed performances of four large industrialized economies, the United States, Japan, Germany and Britain. The other three fell further than the United States, with drops ranging from 6.4 percent in Britain to 8.7 percent in Japan; each has further to go to recover to prerecession levels.
The charts also show the performance of 49 economies around the world. Included are all countries for which data is available and whose lowest quarter was at least 2 percent below the earlier peak level.
Many of the countries that had the worst time of it are former members of the Soviet bloc. The economies of the three Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — all shrank by at least 18 percent. The only other economy to perform that poorly was Ukraine, also a former Soviet republic. Former Soviet bloc countries have also lagged in recovering from the downturn.
In other parts of Europe, the performance was generally better. But some countries — notably Iceland and Ireland — were severely damaged in part because major financial institutions collapsed.
It may be surprising that Greece’s national output declined less than Germany’s. But Greece’s economy is still shrinking, while Germany has recovered much of its losses. But the figures are only as good as the national statistics office compiling them, and Greece’s reputation on that score is not good.
All figures are measured in local currency, adjusted for inflation.
Until the recent recession, the deepest fall for the American economy since World War II was a 3.7 percent drop during the brief but steep downturn in 1958.
In the 1970s recession brought on by soaring oil prices, the economy took seven quarters to grow back to where it was before the recession, longer than any other postwar downturn. The figure now is 10 quarters and counting.
When the recent financial crisis was at its height, few countries escaped downturns. World trade volumes collapsed, devastating exporters in Asia and Latin America. But most of those countries quickly recovered; their economies are now larger than before the crisis hit.
China does not report exact quarterly figures, making it impossible to know how bad the situation became, but Hong Kong and Taiwan, which do provide numbers, were hurt. Taiwan and Turkey are the only countries that have completely recovered from a double-digit fall in G.D.P.
Some countries managed to escape a downturn or, at worst, had only a small and brief decline. Argentina, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Tunisia, Israel and Jordan are in that group. Poland’s economy, unlike those of its Eastern European neighbors, has regained more than it lost in its shallow downturn.
Developed countries with robust natural resources sectors also fared well. Australia performed better than any other major industrialized economy; its G.D.P. fell less than 1 percent even at the worst of the crisis. Canada did experience a recession, but it has recovered nearly all of what was lost.
Floyd Norris comments on finance and economics on his blog at nytimes.com/norris.
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