Commenting on Friday’s news from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis that the economy grew an anemic 1.3% in the second quarter, The Conference Board said that from a business cycle perspective, there still aren’t signs that the economy has re-entered a recession. However, the business research organization does not expect GDP to grow more than 2% in the remaining half of the year.
The Conference Board says news of the disappointing GDP growth, following the downwardly revised figure of 1.8% for the first quarter “comes at a bad time, when we are at the brink of political stalemate to avoid the debt default, which could spark a global financial crisis and send the U.S. economy back into recession.”
While exports have been strong, the U.S. economy continues to face the headwinds of weak “consumption, still declining state and local government spending, tepid business investment, soft housing activity, the weak labor market and rising food and energy prices,” The Conference Board said. “Business sentiment is not more optimistic than consumers and likely to result in no more than moderate expansion of business investment.”
