The upcoming holiday shopping season could be the toughest in years, local merchants were told this morning at the Retail Merchants Association's annual economic forecast breakfast.

Alan M. Gayle, senior investment strategist at Trusco Capital Management, and Scott Krugman, vice president of industry public relations at the National Retail Federation, discussed the challenges facing the economy and how it could affect retailers this holiday season.

The federation and other retail organizations anticipate weaker growth in retail sales than in previous years.

Krugman said at the breakfast that retail sales would grow 2.2 percent this year, less than the 4.4 percent growth the retail sector has seen the past 10 years.

Gayle said he expected sales to grow 1 percent to 2 percent.

The cause, Gayle said, is tighter credit standards, a weak housing market, high energy costs and uncertainty in the job market.

In a bit of good news, he did say there were indications that some of the pressures leading to the slowdown could ease by next year. -- Louis Llovio