Economists have mostly lowered their expectations for GDP growth, according to the Survey of Professional Forecasters, released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on Friday, with the prediction for this year cut to 2.3% from 2.4% in their previous survey.
While 2016 GDP is still expected to grow 2.8%, 2017's forecast was lowered to 2.6% from 2.8% and 2018 was downsized to 2.4% from 2.5%.
For this quarter, the estimate was lowered to 2.7% from 3.1% with next quarter dropping to 2.8% from 2.9% and the first quarter of 2016 was increased to 2.8% from 2.4%.
Unemployment predictions were fairly steady with this quarter's remaining 5.3%, next quarter dipping to 5.1% from 5.2% and the first quarter of 2016 holding at 5.1%. By year, the 2015 forecast is down to 5.3% from 5.4%, next year remains 5% and 2017 stays at 4.8%.
Inflation, as measured by headline CPI, was raised to 0.8% from 0.7% for this year, while the next two years' forecasts remained 2.1% and 2.3%.
