THE US economy has stumbled deeper into the mud of another soft patch, with revised data showing a weaker pattern of growth in the first quarter.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis kept its growth estimate at an annualised 1.8 per cent, dashing hopes that it would be revised upwards, and said that consumption growth was weaker than it previously thought. The latest data suggest the recovery will continue to be slow, with average growth of about 3 per cent. That will mean only a slow reduction in unemployment. The US in the past couple of years has never sustained any run of stronger growth but never fell back towards recession either. – Copyright The financial Times Limited 2011