US economic growth should be stronger in the second half of the year than it was in the first, although the second quarter is likely to mark the strongest spot, a US Treasury Department official said on Friday.
"Looking ahead to the second half that we're now in, we don't expect 3.4 percent growth to continue but we do expect somewhere between 2.5 percent and 3 percent growth in the second half of the year," Phillip Swagel, the Treasury's assistant secretary for economic policy, told reporters.
It is "not as strong as the second quarter but stronger than the first half," Swagel said at a news briefing. He added that "this is strong enough to sustain job creation."
The US economy edged ahead at just a 0.6 percent annual pace in the first quarter but grew at a 3.4 percent pace in the April-June period as businesses stepped up their investment spending and built inventories. In June, the Bush administration forecast 2007 economic growth of 2.3 percent.