2019 economic forecast: Slower but no recession
Last year is likely a high-water mark for the U.S. economy, but 2019 won't be anything close to the plunge into the abyss that recent stock market gyrations have suggested. If the economy were a jet that reached cruising speed in 2018, it will throttle back moderately next year before slowing further in 2020, economists say. And if it keeps growing past July, it will mark the longest expansion in U.S. history. After notching an expected 3 percent gain this year – which would be its best showing in more than a decade – the nation's gross domestic product is projected to grow 2.6 percent in 2019, according to the average estimate of 51 economists surveyed by Wolters Kluwer Blue Chip Economic Indicators. While job growth is poised to slow, wage increases are accelerating. And healthy consumer spending is likely to offset a slowdown in business investment growth and a sputtering housing market. "This is still a robust economy," says Barclays economist Jonathan