In 2021, the U.S. economy grew at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s administration, a strong comeback after a pandemic-related recession in 2020. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that U.S. gross domestic product, the most comprehensive measure of a nation’s economic activity, grew 5.7 percent during the last calendar year. It marked the sharpest surge in GDP since the 7.2 percent uptick in 1984, another post-recession year. The country’s economy increased at an annualized basis of 6.9 percent in the final three months of the year alone, as businesses continued to recover with the aid of government and central bank stimulus packages. But economic analysts are tempering their expectations for this year’s growth in light of the impact of the Omicron variant. The International Monetary Fund, the Associated Press reported, has predicted that U.S. GDP growth will decelerate to 4 percent for all of 2022. It is unlikely to repeat the patterns of 2020, however, where the nation’s economy shriveled by 3.4 percent under the first wave of the coronavirus.