U.S. economy forecast to grow by 1.5 percent in 2014

The Congressional Budget Office says the U.S. economy will grow by just 1.5 percent this year — hurt by a poor first-quarter performance.

This new assessment is considerably more pessimistic than the Obama administration's.

Last month, the administration predicted that the economy would grow 2.6 percent this year.

The CBO said the economy should grow by 3.4 percent over 2015 and 2016, and predicts that the unemployment rate will remain below 6 percent into the future.

The economy unexpectedly contracted over the first quarter of the year, in part because of an unusually harsh winter.

The CBO also projects that the government will run a deficit of $506 billion for the budget year ending Sept. 30.