The International Monetary Fund revised the U.S. GDP growth outlook for 2014 downwards. Now the American economy is seen to expand by 2% over the year versus whopping 2.8% in April, ITAR-TASS informs.
The forecast for the next year has been left unchanged at 3% so far. However, as the new documents have it, the growth is going to stay somewhere near 2% for several years to come. This is below the average historical levels.
In 2014, the situation worsened due to several factors, such as cold winter, a weak housing market still suppressed by recent shocks, and stagnant external demand. But the experts at the fund say that the downfall at the beginning of the year has already been followed by an economic upturn.
The updated GDP growth outlook was published along with the IMF’s annual review of the U.S. economy.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the national economy contracted by one percent point in the first quarter, even though a drop by 0.5% had been foreseen. This was the first tumble of the quarterly GDP since 2011.
Analysts had been sure the economy would expand by 3.5% in the second quarter year on year and 0.9% quarterly.