While Bank of America Merrill Lynch strikes a somber tone Barclays Capital backs the US economy to outperform Europe in 2H 2010. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) have today called, "for a US growth recession." In their Global Energy Weekly Bank of America Merrill Lynch say that, "following a continued deterioration in the data, our economics team recently decided to lower BofA Merrill Lynch's US GDP growth numbers to 1.8% for 2011, down from 2.3% prior. "Consequently, we see some downside risks to our projected OECD North America oil demand growth numbers for 2011 of 105 thousand b/d, particularly if slower US economic growth significantly impacts Mexico and Canada. "But our Economics team is also calling for ample liquidity conditions and a second round of quantitative easing ahead, an important point of support for crude oil prices." While Bank of America paint a decidedly subdued picture of the US economic outlook Barclays (LON:BARC) have backed the US economy to outperform Europe. Barclays say that while euro area real GDP significantly outperformed that of the US in Q2 10, they will look for the US to pull ahead during H2 10. "We view recent data, including those on US private payrolls, the manufacturing ISM, and consumer spending, as consistent with this view," says a morning economic briefing from Barclays Capital. PMIs for August were generally in line with our forecast that the global economy is moderating to a still-solid growth rate in H2 10. "Emerging market central banks are reacting idiosyncratically, with the Copom going on hold but the Bank of Korea and RBI likely tightening further this month," say Barclays.

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