Government forecasters have predicted that average retail gasoline prices could peak at $1.75 to $1.80 this summer.

In March, at the peak of gas anxiety, when Government forecasters predicted summer prices of $2 a gallon, sales of Volkswagen's high-mileage diesel cars soared.

If El Nino wanes or gradually disappears altogether by next summer, as Government forecasters currently expect, farmers in the Midwest can expect fairly normal growing conditions.

Public opinion polls document a steady drop in the public's support for faster privatization, and Government forecasters predict that unemployment, now at 11 percent, will reach between 17 and 19 percent by the end of the year.

Government forecasters were similarly surprised.

Government forecasters expect an economic contraction of 0.9 percent for the fiscal year as a whole, potentially the steepest since the war, and are basing next year's budget forecasts on a further contraction of 0.3 percent.

It was the kind of weary, rote disgruntlement at Government engineers and Government forecasters and Government hydrologists that bubbles up like water under a failing levee in nearly every conversation in the flood basin.

The President's plan envisions a budget surplus of at least $76 billion for the current fiscal year and much larger surpluses stretching as far into the future as Government forecasters can see.

Government forecasters expect output to increase 0.4 percent in September and just 0.2 percent in October.

Government forecasters in South Korea and Taiwan also use versions of the same system for their countries' weather forecasting operations.