The U.S. economy saw a 6.4% annualized increase in gross domestic product (GDP) in first quarter of 2021, according to CUNA’s latest Economic Update Video. In the video CUNA Senior Economist Jordan van Rijn examines the pandemic’s continued effect on the economy, and what the rest of 2021 may look like.

“After the second half of last year, this is the fastest pace of growth we’ve seen in about 40 years. We saw really big increases in consumer spending, government spending, and business investment,” van Rijn said. “This is really being led by consumers who got these big stimulus checks and are beginning to get vaccinated and getting more confident in spending, as well as businesses starting to re-open and feel more confident.”

Van Rijn says he expects the economy to grow at around 6% in 2021, with the growth leveling off to around 4% in 2022.

“That’s really strong growth, but we have to remember we had a record decrease in growth last year, so we’re sort of starting at a lower point and just catching up,” he said. “At this pace we expect that later this year we’ll be back to the same economic activity we were at pre-pandemic.”