Economists Cut Forecasts, Survey Says

Private-sector economists have cut their U.S. growth forecasts for this quarter and trimmed them for all of 2003, a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia survey said.

Economists pared their estimates for first-quarter growth to 2.2% annualized from 2.6% in the previous survey last quarter. They expect annualized real gross domestic product to rise a modest 2.5% for 2003, down from the previous estimate of 2.6%.