The US Department of Commerce said on Friday that though the 2009 first quarter has seen a 5.7 percent decline in the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the situation could still be termed 'better' than 2008 last quarter, as well as the projected decline. 

Statistically speaking, the first quarter GDP drop was lesser than the 6.3 percent fall in the GDP in the final quarter last year, and less rigorous than the 6.1 percent decline - based on partial data - estimated a month back by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The term GDP measures the total goods and services produced in the country, and imports are a subtraction in the computation of GDP.

Saying that the imports during the first quarter had decreased, the bureau's statement with regard to the GDP figures for the first quarter said: "The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, equipment and software, private inventory investment, nonresidential structures, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive contribution from personal-consumption expenditures."

Giving yet another reason for the slightly 'better' first quarter GDP figures, the bureau said that spending for personal consumption increased 1.5 percent in the quarter, as against a 4.3 percent drop in the earlier quarter, leading to a lesser comparative decline.