President Joe Biden is claiming economic success despite the second straight quarter of contracted economic growth in the United States.

On Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ (BEA) first estimate of the nation’s gross domestic product was worse than the predicted expansion of 0.5%, FXStreet noted.

The economy shrank by a 0.9 annualized rate. Economists widely define a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Despite that, Biden claimed in a statement that the contraction was unsurprising and the economy is heading in the right direction.

“Coming off of last year’s historic economic growth – and regaining all the private sector jobs lost during the pandemic crisis – it’s no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation,” Biden remarked.