U.S. President Barack Obama says he expects a mixed bag of good and bad economic news Friday when the government releases key figures for the second quarter of 2009.
The president predicts the latest data on the nation's economy will provide little comfort for Americans who have lost their jobs, or whose businesses have been hurt by the recession.
He says the new figures on the nation's gross domestic product - the total market value of goods and services produced in the United States - will show the economy shrank again in the second quarter.
"I suspect that the GDP numbers will still show the economy contracted in the second quarter, that job loss is still a huge problem," said President Obama.
But the president seems to find a bright side in those numbers. He says they are likely to show that the rate of job loss -while still too high - has slowed. And he notes that the troubled financial sector has stabilized - a sign that the economy has pulled back from the brink of total disaster.
"The credit system, the banking system, the financial markets generally have settled down," said Mr. Obama. "You're not seeing the huge volatility or panic that you were seeing."
The president was asked about the economy during a brief session with reporters following talks with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.
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