US economy falls sharply

The US economy reportedly shrank by 6.2 percent in the last three months of last year.



Official figures have shown a far sharper fall than had previously been reported.



The data shows that plunging exports and the biggest fall in consumer spending in 28 years dragged the annualised figure down from an earlier estimate of 3.8 percent.



The decline was much worse than analysts had expected, sending US stocks spiralling lower.



In 2008, the economy grew by 1.1 percent, the slowest pace since 2001.