ATLANTA -- A feared recession would likely be brief, and Georgia will probably be no worse off than the nation as a whole, the state’s official economist said Tuesday.

“We’re expecting ... Georgia could do no worse than the U.S. as a whole, and probably better,” Ken Heaghney told a meeting of the House and Senate Appropriations committees.

Any recession should be mild, Heaghney assured lawmakers, and the economy could turn around as soon as the middle of the year.

“It should be relatively short, not very long (in) duration,” Heaghney said of recession, which the financial markets are indicating we are in now.

But legislators were nervous, remembering years when they were burned by rosy revenue estimates that ended up being untrue, triggering budget cuts to politically popular programs.

“I’m a little cautious, and I think everyone here’s a little cautious,” said House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin, R-Evans.

The testimony came even as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a highly unusual three-quarters of a percentage point at an emergency called meeting Tuesday morning. The move was intended to stimulate the economy and assuage stock market fears around the world. Foreign markets and the U.S. stock market have sold off dramatically in recent days on fears of a recession in the U.S. economy.