Westwood : Faster Economic Growth Seen

Faster economic growth is being predicted for the nation in 1987 and 1988, followed by two years of below-average performance, according to economists who spoke at the quarterly UCLA Business Forecast Conference last week at UCLA.

The conference’s forecast for California called for a 3% or more annual job growth in non-agricultural fields, significantly better than in 1986, officials said.

“The key to our optimistic forecast for the rest of the decade is a revival in state manufacturing,” said David Hensler, a research associate at the UCLA Business Forecast. Real personal income in California rose 3.7% last year, compared to 3% for the nation, he reported.