The economy grew at a record pace in the third quarter—increasing 7.4% over the prior quarter and at a 33.1% annual rate—recovering about two-thirds of the ground it lost earlier in the coronavirus pandemic.

Gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced across the economy—jumped following a record decline from earlier in the pandemic when the virus and related shutdowns disrupted business activity across the country. That puts the economy about 3.5% smaller than at the end of last year, adjusted for inflation and seasonal fluctuations.

The U.S. economy grew at a record-breaking 33.1% annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday, beating forecasters' expectations.

The massive growth number, although not enough to return the economy to pre-pandemic health, will provide President Trump to claim in the last days of the election that the country is clawing its way out of the COVID-19 recession faster than critics thought possible.

The US economy in the summer recovered much of the historically enormous ground it lost in the spring, expanding at the fastest rate on record in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Still, the recovery remains incomplete. The economic crisis that Covid-19 brought on is far from over, and the pandemic threatens to plunge the American economy into turmoil again as infection numbers continue to rise rapidly across the country.