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NEW YORK, Jan. 1-- After a year of improvement, the U.S. economy may face challenges in 2019 as waning stimulus, less friendly monetary policy coupled with decelerating global growth are among the multiple risks for a slowdown, economists said. "Real U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 2.7 percent is forecast for 2019, slowing in the second half of the year as the effects of fiscal stimulus begin to fade," analysts from Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch Global Research said in their 2019 outlook report released in December. The unemployment rate could reach a 65-year low of 3.2 percent by year-end, pushing wage growth of 3.5 percent in aggregate. Core price inflation should gradually rise to 2.2 percent through 2019 and hold as rates continue to rise. The housing market is no longer a tailwind for the U.S. economy, "we believe housing sales have peaked and home price appreciation is forecast to slow," said the research team. SLOWING GROWTH The projection of an economic slowdown was widely shared by many renowned institutions. Goldman Sachs said in November that the U.S. GDP growth will slow to below 2 percent in the second half of 2019, as the U.S. Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates and the effects of corporate tax cuts fade. "Growth is likely to slow significantly next year, from a recent pace of 3.5 percent-plus to roughly our 1.75 percent estimate of potential by end-2019," wrote Jan Hatzius, chief economist for the investment bank, in a recent note to clients. | 
