The national economy will muddle through the next year without a recession, but growth will be too weak to make much of a dent in the unemployment rate, forecasters believe.

In their latest outlook, top forecasters with the National Association for Business Economics predicted the economy would grow 2.4 percent in 2012, only a slight improvement from the 1.8 percent growth they expect for all of 2011.

Both estimates were a slight 0.1 percentage point higher than the group’s September forecast but would still leave the economy growing far below the pace needed to significantly lower the high unemployment rate of 9 percent.