BENGALURU — The impact of the coronavirus outbreak in China on U.S. economic growth will be negligible and short-lived, according to economists in a Reuters poll who nonetheless now say risks to their forecasts are skewed more to the downside. The outbreak has also significantly increased the chance Beijing doesn't comply with all of the terms of a Jan. 15 initial trade agreement signed with Washington, potentially reigniting a damaging trade war between the world's two largest economies. Still, medians from the Feb. 10-19 Reuters poll of over 100 economic forecasters found the overall U.S. economic growth outlook for this year unchanged compared with last month. The forecast for growth in the current quarter was reduced just 0.1 percentage point to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.5% - already slow, even by recent standards. The economy was then expected to grow 1.8-2.0% each quarter until end-2021.

Source: International New York Times February 20, 2020 00:11 UTC