Hurricane Katrina will trim US economic growth by as much as a full percentage point in the second half of this year, said a report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday.

The report said that Katrina's impact was likely to be "significant but not overwhelming" to the overall US economy, especially if US energy production along the Gulf of Mexico returns to pre-hurricane levels quickly.

The CBO predicted that the economic growth in the second half of the year would be reduced by between 0.5 percentage point and 1 percentage point. It put total job losses at around 400,000.

"Last week, it appeared that larger economic impacts might occur, but despite continued uncertainty, progress in opening refineries and restarting pipelines now makes those larger impacts less likely," CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin said in a letter to Congressional leaders.

Source: Xinhua