 The NABE predicts the housing market will stifle growth this year |
The slowdown in the US housing market will hit the country's economy harder than previously thought, according to a group of economic professionals. The National Association of Business Economists (NABE) has lowered its forecast for economic growth from 2.8% in 2007 to 2.3%.
The downgrade came after official data showed that the economy grew only 1.3% in the first three months of the year.
But the group predicts a rebound in 2008 to gross domestic growth of 3.2%.
The forecast is the average of the predictions from a panel of 48 economists.
The majority of the forecasters put the chances of there being a recession in the next year at above 25%.
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan puts the risk at one in three.
Rising interest rates have slowed the housing market, with particular problems in the sub-prime mortgage market, which lends money to people with poor credit records.
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