(Good) Signs of the Times

"The economy will be settling down into a more sustainable rate of growth," McDeVitt says. "We've gone from about a 3.9 percent increase in 1997 to about a 2.5 percent growth rate for this year. Due to the growth of jobs, which provides income, we're looking at fairly good consumer spending in our economy. And with wages and jobs goes consumer confidence, so we should be looking to another fairly decent year." Last year consumer spending levels were at 3.2 percent, whereas this year McDeVitt says the forecast is closer to 3 percent.