George H.W. Bush Performance on Stock Market, GDP and Jobs Created

Last updated: September 1st, 2023

George H. W. Bush was a former Vice President, Director of the CIA, UN Ambassador, US Congressman, and WWII Navy Pilot. He was president for one term from 1989 to 1993. The economy entered a mild recession at the end of his term.

George Bush Sr. proposed and secured a $50 billion bailout in 1989 to respond to the savings and loans crisis. He raised taxes on top income earners the following year and went to war in the Persian Gulf. He signed the North American Free Trade Agreement at the end of his term.

Summary of George H.W. Bush’s performance

Below is a table summarizing George H.W. Bush's cumulative and annualized performance across all the metrics we track. These are for the entirety of George H.W. Bush's term.

Indicator	Cumulative Gain/Loss
NASDAQ	78.17%
DOW	45.41%
S&P	51.66%
Job Growth	2.46%
GDP Growth	8.23%

Key Policies

Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (Aug 1989)
Budget Enforcement Act (Oct 1990)
NAFTA (Dec 1992)

Key Events

Fall of the Berlin Wall (Nov 1989)
First Gulf War (Aug 1990)
Soviet Union Dissolves (Dec 1991)
NAFTA signed (Dec 1992)

George H.W. Bush's stock market performance

Under George H.W. Bush’s presidency, the S&P 500 gained 51.66%, the NASDAQ gained 78.17% and the Dow Jones gained 45.41%. Annualized, the S&P 500 gained 10.97%, the NASDAQ gained 15.52% and the Dow Jones gained 9.81%

Here is George H.W. Bush’s cumulative stock market performance broken out by term.

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
NASDAQ	78.50%	78.17%
DOW	46.26%	45.41%
S&P	52.26%	51.66%

Stock Performance Chart

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Bush GDP growth performance

During George H.W. Bush’s presidency, the GDP gained 8.23%. That translates annually as GDP gained 2.02%.

Here is Bush’s cumulative GDP growth performance broken out by term.

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
GDP Growth	8.23%	N/A

GDP Performance Chart

Bush jobs growth performance

During George H.W. Bush’s presidency, payrolls grew 2.46% cumulatively. That translated to an annualized jobs groth of 0.62%.

Here is Bush’s cumulative job growth performance broken out by term.

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
Job Growth	2.46%	N/A

Job Growth Performance Chart

How we calculate President Bush's data for Facts First?

We capture the data as soon as it’s available to us – stock market data after daily market close, jobs data once a month and GDP data once a quarter. After verifying the raw data, we then calculate updated cumulative and annualized performance data for the current president (the data for previous presidents have been calculated and verified in advance).

Some metrics are measured daily (like stock market performance), monthly (like jobs growth) and quarterly (like GDP growth). We start measurement of performance for a president from the first full time period after their inauguration. For stock market performance, it is the first stock market day in office. For jobs growth, it’s either first full calendar month in office (so if you are inaugurated in the middle of January, the first full month is February). This ensures a consistent starting point across all presidencies.

Also, read these articles in our Learning Center:

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