Administration Cuts Jobless Forecast: Council of Economic Advisers Increases Prediction of Inflation
The Reagan administration predicted yesterday that unemployment will fall more than previously estimated but prices will rise faster than expected this year and through 1992.</br></br>In its annual revisions of the official administration economic forecast, the Council of Economic Advisers said the economy will grow by 3.2	percent during 1987, an inflation-adjusted rate that many private economists think is achievable.</br></br>same as the administration forecast last January. The economy expanded at a 3.5 percent annual rate during the first six months of this year.</br></br>The forecast for growth in subsequent years was lowered by 0.2 percentage point per year, to 3.5 percent in 1988, 3.4 percent in 1989 and, after a gradual decline during the next three years, to 3.1 percent in 1992. If the administrationÛªs new forecast proves accurate, the nation will go 10 years without a recession, equaling the postwar record.</br></br>percent rate for 1987 that was forecast last January. During the first six months of the year, the unemployment rate fell from 6.6 percent to 6.1 percent. CEA Chairman Beryl W. Sprinkel said yesterday, however, that he was a bit "squeamishÛ about the June decline, which may have been due in part to seasonal factors. He suggested that the figure for JulyÛÓscheduled to be released todayÛÓmay register slightly higher unemployment.