After significantly outpacing GDP growth for a couple of years, manufacturing production is likely to grow just slightly faster than the overall U.S. economy in 2007 and 2008, indicate data released by Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, an Arlington, Va.-based business and public policy research group.
The alliance foresees inflation-adjusted GDP rising 2.5% next year and 3.3% in 2008, following this year's 3.3% increase. The group expects manufacturing production to grow 2.6% in 2007 and 3.4% in 2008, a tenth of a percentage point better than real GDP growth in each year. The alliance figures manufacturing production will advance 4.8% this year.
Despite a slow economy, the alliance's economic forecast for the next two years anticipates little increase in the U.S. unemployment rate from the 4.6% projected for this year. It expects the jobless rate to be 4.8% in 2007 and 4.7% in 2008.
