“It may not sound like much, but the difference is important.”<br />In a $17 trillion economy, it is a difference of $170 billion per year, which has major implications<br />for corporate profits, worker pay and even the federal government’s bottom line.<br />Rather it appears as if the pace of growth in 2017 will not be much faster than it was last year, or the year before that.<br />So even as the Commerce Department on Friday offered an upward revision of the first-quarter growth rate — to 1.2 percent<br />from the 0.7 percent cited last month — other forecasters were lowering their sights for the current quarter.<br />It’s Looking Less Likely -<br />By NELSON D. SCHWARTZMAY 26, 2017<br />The big economic bounce that some experts have confidently predicted for later in the year may turn out to be only a small bump.<br />An analysis by the research firm Macroeconomic Advisers shows<br />that at the start of six of the past seven years, experts overestimated just how much gross domestic product would grow in the year ahead.<br />Change at annual rate<br />Typically, quarterly data is volatile, but in recent years, first-quarter growth estimates have been especially unpredictable.<br />“We’re still on track for a 2 percent growth economy, give or take a little,<br />but not a 3 percent economy,” said Diane Swonk, a veteran independent economist in Chicago.
