January 15, 1984

THE county's economy could experience some slow, steady growth this year, but the same forces that have given it strength during the recession could eventually lead to its deterioration. Those are some of the conclusions recently agreed upon by analysts and officials who monitor the county's economic well-being. The word they used most often in describing the county's economy was ''stable,'' saying that a service-oriented work force has insulated it against severe economic downswings and stimulated retail growth. However, they said, that same work force could ultimately overtax key components of the county's support system such as housing and transportation, producing economic declines. ''We really don't expect any deterioration in Westchester's economy during 1984 after the good experience it had in 1983,'' said Soyna Kornreich, the State Department of Labor's principal economist for the New York City area. She noted that unemployment in the county has continually been significantly lower than the state and national averages.

Disposable Funds The growth of consumer spending - always an important economic statistic because it accounts for roughly two-thirds of the nation's gross national product - appears likely to hold steady, economists are saying. This is expected to be confirmed when the Government announces December's personal income figures Thursday, in effect saying how much consumers can spend. But whether consumers want to spend often depends on their ''household net worth'' - not including the value of their homes. Since the stock market upturn that began in August 1982, household net worth has soared by more than $1 trillion - much of that traceable to increased stock performance. As for personal income, Rosanne M. Cahn, an economist at Goldman, Sachs & Company, expects the December figures to show a slight year- to-year rise of eight-tenths of 1 percent, compared with seven-tenths of 1 percent in November and 1.1 percent last October. What consumers spend or save is actually disposable income - personal income minus taxes. Gobbling Up Food Stocks Because people have to eat whether stock prices move up or down, food company shares are usually favored by investors as ''defensive issues'' when the market retreats. At such times, the highly visible earnings and dividends of food companies reassure investors. But when the market is strong, investors are more willing to settle for promises than performance.

PARIS Two metro stops past the Paris city line, in an old abandoned warehouse in the working-class district of Issy-les-Moulineaux, the French director Claude Chabrol is setting a scene as complex as a Bruegel tableau. It's pre-World War II France - a union meeting hall. Battered and bloody workers return from the streets outside, where their rally has been broken up by Fascist thugs. A hundred separate dramas are going on at once: injured bodies strewn here and there; a doctor rushing from one to the next; the heroine searching for her boyfriend and coming upon her future lover; telephones ringing at odd moments; marchers dashing in and out. It is an intricate shot, made more complicated by Mr. Chabrol's decision to film it continuously, in one unbroken four-minute take. But Mr. Chabrol, wearing a mischievous smile, is obviously in his element. A smallish man with rounded shoulders and an ill-fitting suit, he delights in small flashes of humor and small, human, cinematic touches. ''There are lots of films now about robots, made with robots,'' he says, carefully filling his pipe. ''I'm afraid they might be for an audience of robots, too. Me, I'm interested in people.''

President Hafez al-Assad of Syria said today that he would not withdraw Syrian troops from Lebanon until United States marines and other foreign troops had left, the Syrian press agency said. Mr. Assad made the comments after talks with Donald Rumsfeld, the United States special envoy to the Middle East. Previously, the Syrian President had opposed calls for the simultaneous withdrawal of Syrian and Israeli forces from Lebanon. His comments today, reported by the Syrian press agency, represented a stiffening of Mr. Assad's demands for pulling Syrian forces out of Lebanon.

John McEnroe avenged three humiliating 1983 losses to Mats Wilander by dominating the teen-ager, 6-2, 6-4, yesterday to move into the final of the Volvo Masters tennis tournament. There he will meet the man who beat him here last year in straight sets, Ivan Lendl, who powered his way into the final by beating Jimmy Connors yesterday, 6-3, 6-4. Even though the Masters title, which Lendl won the last two years, is still to be contested, both men agreed that the current No. 1 ranking was no longer at stake. McEnroe entered this event ranked first on the Association of Tennis Professionals computer, with Wilander - who was seeded first in this tournament - his primary challenger on the strength of his nine Grand Prix titles. While Lendl was the leading money winner in 1983, with $1.6 million, he failed once again to win a major title. The Masters determines the champion of the 1983 Grand Prix circuit and sometimes cements the rankings for the year just finished.