WEST CHESTER, Pa. — Economic growth in the U.S. will probably pick up as energy prices recede and Japanese suppliers of parts to U.S. factories recover from the earthquake and tsunami in that country, said economist Mark Zandi.
“The economy’s slowdown is transitory,” Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said Monday on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance Midday” with Tom Keene. Housing continues to subtract from growth, Zandi said.
While housing prices “are still a bit high,” they are “close to fair value.” Evidence of accelerating growth will probably bolster confidence, Zandi said.
“Businesses are extraordinarily nervous,” he said.
A spate of recent economic data has shown weakness in the economy. The unemployment rate unexpectedly increased to 9.1 percent in May, according to the Labor Department. Other reports showed manufacturing expanded at the slowest pace in more than a year in May, and an index of home prices dropped in March to the lowest level since 2003.
In its regional economic survey, the beige book, the Fed reported last week its 12 district banks “indicated that economic activity generally continued to expand” even as “a few districts indicated some deceleration.”
