I think we are in trouble - Roubini

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The doomsday prophet calls US growth ‘dismal and poor’.

New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who anticipated the financial crisis, called the fourth quarter surge in US economic growth "very dismal and poor" because it relied on temporary factors.

Roubini said more than half of the 5,7 percent expansion reported on Friday by the government was related to a replenishing of inventories and that consumption depended on monetary and fiscal stimulus. As these forces ebb, growth will slow to just 1,5% in the second half of 2010, he said.

"The headline number will look large and big, but actually when you dissect it, it's very dismal and poor," Roubini told Bloomberg Television in an interview at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. "I think we are in trouble."

Roubini said while the world's largest economy won't relapse into recession, unemployment will rise from the current 10%, posing social and political challenges.

"It's going to feel like a recession even if technically we're not going to be in a recession," he said.