Saturday, April 16, 2011

IMF Cuts U.S. Growth Forecast on Oil, ‘Lackluster’ Jobs Pace


     Higher oil prices, fewer jobs. That's the way it goes except drill baby drill and more jobs. But will Washington ever listen? Only if the Tea Party keeps the pressure up.
------lee

By Timothy R. Homan
Apr 11, 2011 10:06 AM PT

     The International Monetary Fund lowered its forecast for U.S. growth this year, predicting higher oil prices and the pace of job gains will restrain the recovery.
     The world’s largest economy will expand 2.8 percent this year, down from the 3 percent projected in January, the IMF said today, citing the need to reduce deficits and boost exports. Global gross domestic product will grow 4.4 percent in 2011, matching the previous estimate, according to the Washington-based lender’s World Economic Outlook report.
     Consumer spending, the biggest part of the U.S. economy, faces headwinds from the rising cost of food and gasoline.Federal Reserve officials last month said the expansion is on“firmer footing,” lessening the need to extend a bond purchase program beyond June.
     “If the U.S. is going to do fiscal consolidation of the size that it has to do, then demand has to come from elsewhere,” Olivier Blanchard, chief economist at the IMF, said today at a news conference. “It has to come from net exports. This just has to happen for the U.S. to be able to sustain growth.”
     The economy grew 2.9 percent last year, the most since 2005, according to figures from the Commerce Department. U.S. GDP will expand 2.9 percent this year and 3.1 percent in 2012, according to the median estimate of about 70 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News from April 1 to April 7. 


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