Despite encouraging signs that the worst may be over for the U.S. economy, most key data remain at levels indicative of recession, according to a panel of economists deemed the country's recession arbiter. And, for the six highly regarded economists on the business cycle dating committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), American industrial production is a key worry-point. Many private economists believe the world's largest economy is poised for a recover, although probably a slow one. But even if the U.S. recession is at or near its end, NBER said in a memo released on its website Feb. 12 that the group would wait some months before declaring the economy out of the woods. It was NBER which declared last November that the record ten-year U.S. expansion turned into a recession in March 2001, a contraction deepened by the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks.
展开▼
