NORWICH – Slowgoing, but still growing. That’s how NBT Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Kenneth Entenmann described the state of the U.S. economy at Commerce Chenango’s annual “Economic Forecast Breakfast” held Thursday at the Norwich American Legion.

Dozens of leaders in the business, nonprofit, and government sectors attended the event to discuss the major successes and setbacks of the last year, and to get a glimpse of what may be in store for the year ahead.

Entenmann, appearing in his third consecutive year as the event’s keynote speaker, played off last year’s theme in which he defended his sense of “cautious optimism” concerning economic growth.

“Today, I’m still unenthusiastically optimistic,” he said Thursday. “It’s hard to describe where the economy is because it’s not bad, but it’s not great.”

The economy continues to grow at a 2.3 percent pace, Entenmann pointed out. But at the same time, he said consumers are still on high alert, saving more and reluctant to spend. Economic recovery just doesn’t feel like economic recovery, he said.

Even so, Entenmann said the U.S. is “far from recession,” citing low gas and energy prices, relatively low interest rates, job growth (albeit lower paying jobs), a strong consumer base, and nearly $4 trillion in cash on corporate balance sheets just waiting to be dumped into the economy.