According to a USA Today report, the economic outlook index it maintains with IHS Global Insight finds that economic growth is expected to continue in the first half of 2010, but at a potentially slower rate than was seen at the end of 2009.
The report noted that the growth of the nation’s gross domestic product is back into positive territory after sinking as low as -5.9 percent on an annualized basis last spring. In January, the GDP was improving at a 4 percent annualized basis, with the expectation that this figure would decrease somewhat by spring.
The report uses 11 economic indicators to gauge the state of the current financial climate, and six of these were said to be positive in January – down from eight in December. Looking ahead, the index predicts that the GDP will grow at a 3.8 percent rate in March, and is then predicted to fall to 2.3 percent in June.
While many people will be relieved to see the GDP reaching back into positive territory, the projected rate of growth is unlikely to be high enough to put a significant dent in the nation’s unemployment situation in the short term.
This is of particular concern because unemployment is widely blamed for the ongoing levels of credit card and mortgage defaults being seen across the country.
In a sign of how weak the unemployment recovery continues to be, the Labor Department reported this week that 470,000 people filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, almost unchanged from the 478,000 cited the previous week.
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