Better growth, but fewer jobs

Better growth, but fewer jobs

Top economists in the US have improved their economic forecasts for 2010, but warn that unemployment will continue.

November 23, 2009 12:02 by Aarti Nagraj

But while employment may be slow to pick up, the overall economy seems to be improving faster; NABE now estimates that the US will see a 2.9 percent growth in real GDP for 2010, higher than its October forecast of 2.6 percent growth.

“Real GDP growth should also be enough to recover losses from the recession and return output to an all-time high by the end of 2010,” NABE said in a statement.

The OECD also gave a brighter outlook for the US economy in 2010; it increased its GDP growth forecast to 2.5 percent, as compared to its earlier estimate of 0.9 percent.

“After the most severe post-war recession, the economy appears to have bottomed out,” the OECD said.

A recovery in the US will bode well for the rest of the world, specifically for the Middle East region. Most of GCC nations have their currencies pegged to the US dollar and have dispelled rumors that they plan to abandon the currency, despite the dollar’s recent decline.

“US dollar is the best medium of exchange in the international trade and we will continue to use it,” the UAE Central Bank governor Sultan Nasser Al Suwaidi told reporters on Sunday.

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Tags: 2010, dollar, Economy, Financial Crisis, improve, unemployment rate, US