But adjusted for inflation, “real GDP” rose by only 1.5%, according to the GDP data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis today. In the years between the Great Recession and the pandemic (so excluding recessions), average quarter-to-quarter GDP growth was 2.5% annual rate. The difference between this growth rate of 7.9% in current dollars, and the growth rate of “real” GDP of 1.5% was the above mentioned red-hot 6.3% inflation in Q2 GDP. Imports are a negative in GDP, and this surge of imports deducted 1.51 percentage points from the 1.5% GDP growth. Exports are a positive in GDP and contributed 0.50 percentage points to the 1.5% GDP growth.