Posted To: MND NewsWire
Fannie Mae has again downgraded expectations for economic growth in 2016. Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist and the ESR Macroeconomic Forecast Team said on Tuesday that the 0.5 percent annualized growth in the first quarter GDP was the weakest in two years, well below the company’s expectations at 1.2 percent. It was the third year in a row that first quarter growth was below 1.0 percent although in the previous two there was a bounce back in the second quarter. The economic team had originally projected 2.2 percent annual growth this year but downgraded that in its April forecast to 1.9 percent. The Economic Summary for May now projects growth of 1.7 percent. The slowdown was broad-based but the one bright spot was residential investment which added 0.5 percentage points…(read more )