Business economists have scaled back projections for U.S. growth this year, citing slower company sales and global uncertainty, a quarterly survey found.

The National Association of Business Economists (NABE) said fewer members reported higher sales in the second quarter while profits also took a hit, and the group predicted that sluggish growth will linger through the rest of 2011, MarketWatch reported.

The “economic landscape is weakening, and the recovery is softening,” said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist of the Consumer Electronics Association. DuBravac helped compile the NABE report.

Fifty-six percent of business economists said their companies or industries posted higher sales in the second quarter, down from 63 percent in the first quarter.

Producers of both goods and services saw “significant weakness,” the NABE report said.

Twenty-nine percent of economists, meanwhile, said their companies posted higher profits in the second quarter. By contrast, 45 percent said corporate profits rose in the first three months of the year.

“Profit margins took a significant hit in the second quarter,” the survey said.

Economists attributed much of the slowdown to global events such as political turmoil in oil-producing countries and the Japanese earthquake in March. Political unrest sent crude prices soaring, and the quake disrupted the global supply of parts for key U.S. industries such as automobiles.

Higher costs of raw materials also remain a thorn in the side of business. The survey said 67 percent of economists reported higher costs, up from 63 percent in the prior quarter. It was the highest level in three years.

Business economists now expect softer growth to persist through 2011, with 11 percent predicting growth above 3 percent, down from the 37 percent who predicted that pace of growth in a previous survey. The percentage of economists who expect the U.S. economy to grow more than 2 percent fell to 76 percent from 94 percent in April.