{O/C} While making her media rounds, USTreasury Secretary Janet Yellen echoed the president's optimism about dodging a recession amid stratospheric inflation.
And both the Energy Secretary and Yellen talked of suspending a federal gas tax in order to quell soaring gas prices.
{Take SOT}
In interviews on Sunday news shows in America, the U.S. Treasury Secretary expects the country's economic growth to shrink in the days ahead, yet stressing a recession is not ineluctable.
{Soundbite}
JANET YELLEN, US Treasury Secretary:
I expect the economy to slow. It's been growing at a very rapid rate. We expect a transition to steady and stable growth, but I don't think a recession is at all inevitable.
{VO}
Yellen said overall consumer spending remains invincible, albeit changing given the impact of skyrocketing food and energy prices.
The national saving rate has dipped to around 6 percent, below pre-pandemic records.
And the price of gasoline is pegged at around 5 dollars per gallon.
This, as the Energy Secretary said the president would drag down gas prices via pulling a federal gas tax -- consumers will in turn pay 18.4 cents less per gallon.
{Soundbite}
JENNIFER GRANHOLM, U.S. Secretary of Energy:
We know this is going to be a tough summer because the driving season just started, and we know that there will be continued upward pull on demand.
{VO}
But former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers all but brushed it off.
{Soundbite}
LARRY SUMMERS, Former US Treasury Secretary:
The dominant probability would be that by the end of next year we would be seeing a recession in the American economy.
{VO}
Analysts conjecture some may already be feeling the pinch.
The Federal Reserve has raised the target funds rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to between 1.5 to 1.75 percent amid a bleak economic outlook.
With choppy waters ahead, inflation is here to make waves, and propitious timing is key to ameliorating it with low employment.
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