Laurence D. Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., said the U.S. economy is slowing as both consumers and businesses wait to see if the Trump administration can deliver on tax reform and deregulation.

"There’s a greater worry that these proposed changes are going to be harder and harder to execute," said Fink, speaking on CNBC Thursday. "You’re seeing a slowing down of our economy."

Fink said the U.S. may be the slowest-growing economy in the first quarter among the G-7 nations. Japan, Canada and Europe are expanding faster than anticipated six months ago while the U.S. is lagging expectations as companies and individuals hold back spending. They are awaiting the outcome of President Donald Trump’s economic agenda, Fink said, and without tax reform and deregulation, the markets will suffer setbacks.

Fink also said there are fewer tourists coming to the U.S. because there is a fear they aren’t welcome, which is hurting the economy and hotels.

The head of the world’s largest asset manager said the most crowded trade right now is that rates are going to move much higher. Instead, he said, there’s a 51 percent chance that 10-year Treasuries drop below 2 percent.

BlackRock is trying to accelerate its own growth, particularly in its struggling stock-picking business, by relying more on quants to stem the outflows from active funds.

Last week BlackRock announced it’s shifting $6 billion of the $201 billion run by stock pickers into offerings with lower fees where quants play a role. The firm is also firing more than 30 people in its active-equities group, including five of its 53 fundamental portfolio managers, said a person familiar last month.

Fink said on CNBC that the moves are not a substitution of humans with machines. "It is a reorientation in the large-cap area of U.S. equities," he said. "It is a recognition there are more sources of information."

The money manager is doing a lot of research on artificial intelligence, Fink said, but the idea that computers are now able to stock-pick without human input is "more of a myth than a reality."

This article was provided by Bloomberg News.