Washington  - The United States has been in a recession since December 2007, the country's official arbiter of economic growth said Monday, confirming the long-held views of many economists as the country grapples with a debilitating financial crisis.

The announcement by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private grouping of the country's top economists, marks the first recession in the United States since
2001.

The NBER said it had rated the world's largest economy in recession after a private conference call between its seven-member committee held on Friday.

"The committee determined that the decline in economic activity in 2008 met the standard for a recession," NBER said in a statement on its website.

According to US government estimates, the US economy contracted by 0.5 per cent in the third quarter but grew by 2.8 per cent from April to June.

A recession is typically rated as two straight quarters of contracting growth, but the NBER stressed that its evaluation included much broader indicators and that gross domestic product was not the only gauge of economic activity.

The NBER's analysis focuses on domestic production and employment, both of which have fallen dramatically in the midst of the country's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The committee is chaired by Robert Hall of Stanford University and includes economists from Harvard University, Northwestern University, the University of California and the New York-based Conference board. (dpa)