Business economists less optimistic about next year’s growth

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s business economists are slightly less optimistic about growth prospects over the next year. They note a number of threats ranging from higher-than-expected inflation to lingering disruptions from COVID-19 and snarled supply chains. The National Association for Business Economics released a new report Monday that found 66% of NABE members responding to a survey expect the economy to grow by 3% to 5.9% over the next year. Twenty-eight percent were less optimistic and pegged growth over the next year at 0.1% to 2.9%. That result represented a downgrade from the previous survey in July. In the new survey, no NABE member saw growth higher than the 3% to 5.9% range over the next year.