The May 2018 Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey – Notable Aspects

The May 2018 Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey was published on May 10, 2018.  The headline is “Economists Think the Next U.S. Recession Could Begin in 2020.”

I found numerous items to be notable – although I don’t necessarily agree with them – both within the article and in the “Economist Q&A” section.

An excerpt:

The economic expansion that began in mid-2009 and already ranks as the second-longest in American history most likely will end in 2020 as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to cool off an overheating economy, according to forecasters surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.

Some 59% of private-sector economists surveyed in recent days said the expansion was most likely to end in 2020. An additional 22% selected 2021, and smaller camps predicted the next recession would arrive next year, in 2022 or at some unspecified later date.

As seen in the “Recession Probability” section, the average response as to the odds of another recession starting within the next 12 months was 14.59%. The individual estimates, of those who responded, ranged from 0% to 32%.  For reference, the average response in April’s survey was 15.33%.

As stated in the article, the survey’s respondents were 60 academic, financial and business economists.  Not every economist answered every question.  The survey was conducted May 4 – May 8, 2018.

–

The current average forecasts among economists polled include the following:

GDP:

full-year 2018:  2.9%

full-year 2019:  2.4%

full-year 2020:  1.9%

Unemployment Rate:

December 2018: 3.7%

December 2019: 3.6%

December 2020: 3.9%

10-Year Treasury Yield:

December 2018: 3.24%

December 2019: 3.54%

December 2020: 3.59%

____

Please Note – The above is excerpted from the EconomicGreenfield.com (published by RevSD, LLC) post of May 10, 2018, titled “The May 2018 Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey”

_____

RevSD, LLC offers the above commentary for informational purposes only, and does not necessarily agree with the views expressed by these outside parties.

—–

RevSD, LLC is a management consulting firm and strategic advisory that focuses on the analysis of current and future weak(ening) economic conditions, and offers businesses and other entities advice, strategies, and actionable methods on how to optimally adapt to such challenging, complex conditions.