The White House projected U.S. economic growth for 2005 of 3.4%, down just slightly from its 3.5% forecast made last December.
The new forecast, used for budget planning, also called for a pickup in inflation to 2.9%, up from the December projection of 2.0%.
The forecast for job growth was revised up slightly, to an average of 178,000 new payroll jobs created per month from the previous estimate in December of 175,000.
"Economic growth is steady, it is strong and our economy's underlying fundamentals are robust," Treasury Secretary John Snow said in a statement accompanying the forecast.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005
