Ga. economy expected to lag

ATLANTA - A Georgia forecaster predicts the state economy will lag behind the nation's until 2011, depressed in part by weak commercial real estate activity and sluggish consumer spending.

Robert T. Sumichrast who heads the University of Georgia's business school offered the state's economic forecast at a luncheon Tuesday. He was joined by David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's in New York, who predicted the nation as a whole had entered a recovery.

A year ago, Sumichrast predicted Georgia's economy would rev up by the third quarter of 2009, with unemployment peaking at 9 percent in early 2010.

But data released by state labor officials last month showed Georgia's unemployment rate for October stood at 10.2 percent.

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