It is not that the economy is weakening, or that a recession is in the offing. Rather it appears as if the pace of growth in 2017 will not be much faster than it was last year, or the year before that.
So even as the Commerce Department on Friday offered an upward revision of the first-quarter growth rate — to 1.2 percent from the 0.7 percent cited last month — other forecasters were lowering their sights for the current quarter.
The expectations have dipped amid fears of lackluster consumer spending and orders for durable goods, and new data on Thursday that showed a larger-than-anticipated trade deficit in April.
