Buffett: U.S. recession to be longer, deeper

17:12' 29/04/2008 (GMT+7)
The world's richest person said Monday the U.S. economy is in a recession that will be more severe than most people expect.
Warren Buffett made his prediction on CNBC television after his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to invest 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in the takeover of chewing gum maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. by Mars Inc. in a 23 billion dollar transaction.
"This is not a field of specialty for me, but my general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think," Buffett said. "This will not be short and shallow. I think consumers are feeling gas and food prices, and not feeling they've got a lot of money for other things.
"In the retail businesses ... if anything, they've gotten a little worse," Buffett continued. "Of course, things connected with housing, whether it's in brick or whether it's in carpet, those businesses have shown no uptick at all. Jewelry had a bad Christmas ... and it stayed that way."
On Wednesday, the U.S. Commerce Department is expected to say how fast the economy grew in the first quarter. Economists on average have projected that gross domestic product grew at an annualized 0.2 percent rate in the quarter.
Two quarters of declining GDP is a traditional indicator of recession. That last happened in 2001. Economists expect the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday to cut a key lending rate for a seventh time beginning last September.
Berkshire is a 197 billion dollar conglomerate best known for its insurance holdings, such as auto insurer Geico Corp, but it owns more than 70 businesses.
Many of those businesses are tied to the housing market, including Acme Brick Co, insulation maker Johns Manville, and the real estate brokerage HomeServices of America Inc.