The Commerce Department also released revised and presumably final GDP figures for the previous three years, and while some quarters showed significant changes, the overall differences were minor. For the period from the beginning of 2008 (two months after the official start of the recession) to the end of 2011, the overall rate of GDP growth went from 0.4 percent to 0.3 percent. For 2011 alone, real GDP was revised upward by 0.1 percent.