The White House projects that the unemployment rate will still be above 9 percent next year as President Obama seeks to win a second term.

The new figures from the White House budget office predict that the economy will grow by just 1.7 percent this year, a full percentage point less than the administration predicted at the beginning of 2011. The economy grew by just 0.7 percent in the first half of the year, the slowest pace since the recession ended two years ago.

But the White House does not forecast the economy sliding back into recession.

The White House report also sees the budget deficit topping $1.3 trillion for the fiscal year that ends at the end of this month. That is $300 billion less, or 20 percent lower, than the White House's estimate in February of $1.65 trillion, but slightly higher than last year.

That would still be the third-highest deficit on record.

The White House attributed the revised estimate to a combination of higher-than-expected tax revenues and lower-than-expected government spending.

The White House also projected that deficits over the next decade will fall by $1.45 trillion mainly because of last month's deal to reduce government spending in exchange for increasing the nation's borrowing limit. Now a congressional "super committee" will try to find another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction by Thanksgiving...