Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Chief Executive Officer Mohamed El-Erian called U.S. economic conditions "terrifying," Bloomberg News reported Wednesday on its website.

El-Erian said the odds of the U.S. returning to recession are as high as 50%, the report said.

"We have less economic momentum than we thought we had and we have no policy momentum," the report quoted El-Erian as saying in an interview.

"What's most terrifying," he said in the report, "we are having this discussion about the risk of recession at a time when unemployment is already too high, at a time when a quarter of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages, at a time then the fiscal deficit is at 9% and at a time when interest rates are at zero."

PIMCO is owned by Allianz SE (ALV.XE).

Full story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-22/pimco-s-el-erian-says-u-s-economic-situation-terrifying-as-growth-slows.html#