Forecasts
August 20, 2025
Questions? We've Got Answers: Addressing Issues Impacting the Economic and Financial Outlook
The global economy continues to slow in 2025, catalyzed by thickening trade barriers. This quarter's Q&A discusses the impacts of the evolving U.S. tariff regime along with several other policy shifts.
June 20, 2025
State Economic Forecast
The New England economy has begun to cool in 2025 as risks build on multiple fronts. We expect real GDP growth to ease to 1.4% this year amid this backdrop. The Middle Atlantic region's sizeable trade & transportation sector benefitted from the sharp increase in imports in the first quarter, but with broad-based tariffs now in effect this trend has reversed course. We expect real GDP growth to decelerate to 1.4% in 2025. Economic activity in the Upper South Atlantic is expected to shift into lower gear this year, with growth forecasted at 1.7%. The Lower South Atlantic's strong growth of 3.6% last year is unlikely to be repeated this year. A maturing economic cycle, coupled with several one-off factors, are set to slow the region's growth to an anticipated 2.0%.
June 17, 2025
Long-Term Forecast
The U.S. economy is forecast to run below its long-run trend rate of growth in 2025, as growth is slowed by tariffs, fiscal restraint and slower population growth. Real GDP growth then briefly overshoots in 2026/27 - owing to a rebound in housing and further household and business tax cuts - and then converges closer to potential by 2028. Slower near-term growth pushes the unemployment rate slightly higher, reaching 4.5% by Q4-2025 before gradually returning to its long-run average of 4% by mid-2027.
June 17, 2025
U.S. Quarterly Economic Forecast
Dramatic policy shifts in Washington continue to drive the narrative underlying the global economic outlook. It has been a wild ride since our March forecast, with the Liberation Day tariffs initially proving to be far higher than expected, only to be delayed. It remains highly uncertain what path U.S. tariff policy will take, the biggest wildcard in our forecast.
May 23, 2025
The First 100 Days: Dazed and Confused
It’s been a whirlwind for forecasters, reminding me of the pandemic days when we were reviewing forecasts every couple of weeks to catch up to policy announcements without a historical reference for what was going to come next. We’ve learned a lot in the first 100 days: The first is that tariffs will remain the economic weapon of choice on a scale greater than anything in recent history. The second lesson is that regardless of whether the Administration back-peddles on initial tariff threats, the goal remains the same.
April 16, 2025
Tariff Policy and Whiplash Weaken U.S. Growth Outlook
The U.S. administration imposed a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs, dropping all countries (excluding China) to a flat 10% tariff. This comes in addition to the sectoral tariffs, including steel & aluminum and finished autos & parts. We estimate the effective tariff rate in the U.S. to be 26%, the highest level in over a century. However, this is skewed by the outsized 145% tariff on China.
January 29, 2025
Reality Bites: Finding the Next U.S. Growth Dividend
With executive orders flying fast and furious from President Trump, investor optimism of an unleashing in animal spirits is kept in check by the reality of simple arithmetic on the economy. The median consensus forecast remains anchored towards 2% economic growth for this year and next. This marks a step down in momentum from the administration years of both Biden and Trump’s first term. Each of those three-year periods had near identical real GDP growth, averaging 2.7%, excluding the exaggerated results from the pandemic period (2020-2021).
