Slower Price Rises Seen
White House economist Paul W. McCracken, denying an easing of the administrationÛªs anti-inflation policy, predicts the general price advance will slow to about 3.5 per cent by the year-end.</br></br>The chairman of the PresidentÛªs Council of Economic Advisers declined to comment on political speculation that the administration urgently wants an upturn in national production before the November elections.</br></br>But the councilÛªs January forecast of an expanding economy in the second half of 1970 ÛÏis still a good bet," McCracken said in an interview with The Associated Press.</br></br>, His forecast of 3.5 per cent rate of price vise through the economyÛÓnot merely in consumer pricesÛÓcompared with a 4.5 per cent advance in the final quarter of 1969.</br></br>Recent spending decisions which endanger President NixonÛªs planned budget surplus for fiscal 1971 do not signal a basic shift in economic policy, McCracken indicated, but he conceded that the administration may be finding that some of its tight-budget decisions of last January were ÛÏtoo severe" and may have to be reconsidered.