Pimco Says U.S. Won’t Reach 3% Growth Until Second Half

Pacific Investment Management Co., manager of the world’s largest mutual fund, said a recent forecast by founder Bill Gross for 3 percent economic growth in the U.S. won’t be reached until the second half of 2013.

Growth will be 1.5 percent to 2 percent for the full year because of slower expansion in the first half triggered by fiscal policy tightening, Saumil Parikh, a portfolio manager who leads Newport Beach, California-based Pimco’s cyclical forum, said in a March report being posted on the firm’s website today. The firm said in a December report U.S. economic growth would be 1.25 percent to 1.75 percent in 2013.