Conditions are falling into place for the U.S. economy to begin growing again in the second half of 2009, according to economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Barclays Capital Inc., Bloomberg reported.

“We’re probably hitting the bottom around now,” Larry Kantor, head of research at Barclays, said in an interview today.

Stabilization in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, the Obama administration’s $787 billion stimulus, the Federal Reserve’s efforts to unfreeze credit and a drawdown of inventories are all elements pointing to a return to growth, economists at Barclays said.

“The second quarter is going to be a transitional quarter,” Bruce Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan, told Bloomberg Radio on April 21. Gains in consumer confidence and better credit conditions will lead to a pickup in spending, and an improving housing market and a boost from federal spending “are kind of where you get your recovery,” said Kasman.

Kasman and Kantor forecast that the economy will contract at an annualized pace of 2 percent in the current quarter. Kasman projects the U.S. will then grow at a 1 percent rate in the last half of 2009, while Barclays looks for acceleration from 1 percent growth in the third quarter to 2 percent in the last three months of the year.

An April 9 research report from Barclays predicted “a somewhat saucer-shaped bottoming over the next several months and then a recovery that gradually gathers pace into 2010.”