US at 'elevated' risk of recession
The United States is at an "elevated" risk of economic recession because of housing woes, faltering confidence within financial markets and high oil prices, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.
"The economic outlook right now is particularly uncertain," said CBO Director Peter Orszag in testimony presented to the House of Representatives Budget Committee. "Economic activity has probably already slowed significantly and the risk of a recession is now elevated."
Orszag, who noted that his agency will issue a more detailed forecast in January, said that "most analysts" believe the United States will avoid a recession but that the economy "will grow relatively weakly for several quarters".
The economic slowdown would come in the thick of presidential and congressional election campaigns, prompting Democrats and Republicans to begin laying blame.
With polls showing Americans increasingly worried about the economy, and maybe more so than over the Iraq war, Republicans launched a new attack against Democratic policies, accusing them of raising taxes and imposing pro-labor policies that they said would lead to massive job losses.
"Since taking control of the United States Congress, congressional Democrats have waged an undeclared, but aggressive war that poses a rising threat to millions of American jobs and the prosperity of American families," said a report by House Republican leaders.
But House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer hit back by stating that, "job creation during Republican rule in Washington over the past six years was somewhere between anemic and pathetic."
Agencies
(China Daily 12/07/2007 page16)
