White House adviser - Concerned about U.S. economy

By Joanne Morrison

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House economic adviser Edward Lazear on Friday said the Bush Administration is concerned about the U.S. economy and expects to see slow growth during this quarter.

"Obviously, we are concerned. We think this is going to be our weakest quarter," Lazear, who chairs the president's Council of Economic Advisors, said at a briefing hours after the government reported that the U.S. economy shed the biggest amount of jobs during February in nearly five years.

Earlier on Friday the Labor Department reported that the economy lost 63,000 jobs, after 22,000 were lost in January, adding to the belief growing on Wall Street that the economy has already sunk into recession.

Lazear, when asked, would not project if the economy has headed into recession and said the expectations are for a pickup in growth by this summer.

"Recessions are things that are declared by other people," he said, but he said the administration's economic outlook is more gloomy.

"We have definitely downgraded our forecast for this quarter ... Realistically, the economy is less strong than we hoped it would be," he said forecasting that inflationary pressures will likely ease next year.

"We don't expect to see the same kind of inflation next year," he said.

Even so, Lazear predicted the economy will pick up by the third quarter.

(Reporting By Joanne Morrison; Editing by James Dalgleish)