This year has been characterized by a slow yet steady economic recovery in the United States, but the pace of that trend may be quickening with less than a week left in 2013.

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"2014 looks very promising because over the past several months, the economy has been accelerating," said Joseph Seneca, professor of economics at Rutgers University. "The gross domestic product was revised upward to be one of the highest quarter growths in several years, and there were strong gains in personal consumer spending."

Seneca said increased private sector job growth is one reason to be optimistic, but not the only one.

"The economy has learned to live with fiscal contraction at the federal level," Seneca said, "so I think Mr. Grinch for the Christmas season has been put in retreat, and we enter 2014 with some momentum."

According to Seneca, next year's consensus forecast of 2 percent or more in GDP growth may now be too low an estimate.

"These positive indicators help to create positive momentum moving forward, and sure, it gets into the opposite of what we were in: the vicious cycle turns into a virtuous cycle," Seneca said.

As job growth continues to climb, more working Americans will generate more income.

"That income is spent, that ends up in more people's balance sheets and income statements as further gains, and you develop that momentum," Seneca said. "Success begets success, and that can lead to an acceleration into next year."

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