(Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a surprisingly resilient US economy has prompted investors to question what it will take to bring inflation down, but she cast doubt on whether that would force interest rates to stay elevated for a long period.

“People are trying to figure out exactly what it’s going to take to keep inflation moving down,” Yellen said Tuesday in a moderated discussion at the Fortune CEO Initiative conference in Washington. “And the economic resilience that they see maybe suggest higher for longer, but we’ll see. I think it’s by no means a given.”

Yellen also said that it’s possible that higher rates of investment spending — such as on the green-energy transition — could imply higher interest rates over the longer haul. At the same time, the structural forces that held rates down in recent decades — such as demographic trends — remain “alive and well.”

“The answer is, I don’t know,” whether bond yields will stay high over the longer run, Yellen said. “It’s a great question and it’s one that’s very much on my and the administration’s minds.”

Yellen also said that it’s critical to maintain a “sustainable fiscal policy.” She said the current level of debt is manageable — as measured by how much the US spends each year to finance the federal debt as a share of gross domestic product, and adjusted for inflation. But she also indicated that higher long-term rates could pose a threat.

“The forecast we’ve made assumes that interest rates will rise toward more normal levels, but we are seeing a pretty significant increase in nominal” rates, she said.

Yellen also said that she’s “very optimistic” about the outlook for the US economy.

Economic Outlook

“Consumer spending remains strong, investment spending is solid” and the housing market has stabilized and “seems to be moving up,” she said. “Short term inflation is coming down in the context of an extremely strong labor market,” she also said.

Yellen’s comments come just a couple of days after a last-minute deal was struck to avoid a government shutdown, something the Treasury chief had warned could threaten the economic outlook.

She said that, now, “it’s urgent that Congress allocate funds for Ukraine — that hasn’t been done. That’s really our focus.”

Yellen declined to comment on the battle for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to retain his post.

(Updates with further comments on interest rates, starting in headline.)

Source link

If you choose to “Reject all,” we will not use cookies for these additional purposes.

Adblock test (Why?)

Source link

JOHANNESBURG: Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth is expected to slow this year, dragged down by slumps in heavyweights South Africa, Nigeria and Angola, the World Bank said on Wednesday.
Regional growth will slow to 2.5% in 2023 from 3.6% last year, the bank said in a report, before rebounding to a projected 3.7% next year and 4.1% in 2025.

In per capita terms, the region has not recorded positive growth since 2015, as African countries’ economic activity has failed to keep pace with their rapid increase in population.
Some 12 million Africans are entering the labour market each year, the World Bank wrote in its twice-yearly “Africa’s Pulse” report. But current growth patterns generate just 3 million jobs in the formal sector.

“The region’s poorest and most vulnerable people continue to bear the economic brunt of this slowdown, as weak growth translates into slow poverty reduction and poor job growth,” Andrew Dabalen, the bank’s chief economist for Africa, said.
More than half of the region’s countries – 28 out of 48 – have seen their 2023 growth forecasts revised downward from the World Bank’s April estimates.
The continent’s most developed economy, South Africa, which is facing its worst energy crisis on record, is expected to grow just 0.5% this year.

Economic growth in top oil producers Nigeria and Angola is expected to slow to 2.9% and 1.3% respectively.
Sudan, which is in the midst of a major internal armed conflict that has destroyed infrastructure and brought the economy to a standstill, is expected to be hit by a 12% contraction, the Bank said.
Excluding Sudan, regional growth would be 3.1%.
“The region is projected to contract at an annual average rate per capita of 0.1% over 2015-2025, thus marking a lost decade of growth in the aftermath of the 2014-15 plunge in commodity prices,” the report stated.
While sub-Saharan inflation is expected to ease to 7.3% this year from 9.3% in 2022, it remains above central bank targets in most countries.
Meanwhile, recent military coups in Niger and Gabon in the wake of army takeovers in Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, as well as armed conflicts in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, have created additional risk in Africa.
And mounting debt is draining resources, with 31% of regional revenues going to interest and loan payments in 2022.

Source link