Drug companies' estimates of research costs are too high, Government economists say in a report.

But a senior government economist says he thinks the amount is far smaller.

"The fact is," said one Government economist working the numbers, "we are all shooting in the dark."

"The handwriting has been on the wall for some time," said one government economist, who asked not to be identified.

But Government economists said they were not so concerned about the likelihood of inflation.

Government economists predict that productivity will continue to grow for the next 5 to 10 years at around 2 percent a year.

"The economy's doing better," said a Government economist who is quietly hostile to the leadership.

The task of the meeting, which included senior Government economists, was to form an overall plan for attacking economic problems on a broad front.

Government economists have been stripping out energy and food costs from the price gauge for more than three decades.

Government economists overestimated oil imports in the first two months of the year by $1.2 billion.