Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The White House expects ``tough'' GDP numbers for the final two quarters of this year, spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

``We expect our number next week not to be a good one, and the next quarter could probably be tough as well,'' Perino said at a White House briefing. ``The president knows that we're in for a rough ride.''

The economy probably contracted in the third quarter, shrinking at an annual rate of 0.5 percent, according to a Bloomberg survey of 20 analysts. The previous quarter showed the economy growing at an annual rate of 2.8 percent.

The government reports the gross domestic product on Oct. 30, which analysts expect will show a shrinking economy brought on by the housing crisis and credit crunch that is prompting layoffs across the land.

Perino signaling bad news was a striking comment for a person who rarely ventures into economic forecasts. ``I'm just trying to be realistic,'' she said. Getting the economy back on track and adding jobs ``could be a while,'' she said.

Citigroup Inc., the second-largest U.S. bank, said the U.S. economy will contract for an entire year in one of the worst recessions since World War II.

Four Consecutive Quarters

The GDP will decline four straight quarters ending in June and shrink 0.8 percent in all of 2009, Citigroup's Geoffrey Dennis and Jason Press wrote in a report to clients on Oct. 21. They projected a decrease of 2 percent in GDP during the fourth quarter of this year and an unemployment rate as high as 8.5 percent.

``We are now expecting one of the sharpest recessions in the post-war period,'' Dennis and Press wrote.

Perino was also asked about former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's remarks to Congress today that he doesn't see any way that the U.S. can avoid a significant rise in layoffs and unemployment. The current jobless rate is 6.1 percent.

``I think that that is right,'' she said.

Bush has ordered his administration to ``do everything we can to pull us out of this slowdown so that anything that we experience in this slowdown will be shallower and shorter than we would have otherwise experienced,'' Perino said.

That means quick implementation of the $700 billion financial rescue package, ``unthaw the credit freeze, and get money moving again so we can return this nation on a path to job growth,'' she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net; Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 23, 2008 14:35 EDT