Revised Numbers
By Ed Sperling
IC Insights revised its economic outlook for the United States downward to 1.7%, down from the 2.0% growth it predicted for the full year.
The cause was high unemployment, which was stuck above 8% as of last month. Unemployment numbers did improve over the past couple of years, but they are not shrinking as fast as most analysts would have hoped.
What’s particularly interesting about these numbers is that the needle is still pointing in the right direction, even though it isn’t as robust as a full-blown recovery. But compared with uncertainty in Europe about the future of the Euro and the ability to repay sovereign debt and still eke out growth, sluggish growth in China and Latin America, and suddenly things don’t look so bad.
Tags: economics, GDP, IC Insights, unemployment