Officials with the Federal Reserve are feeling bullish about the chances for a national economic recovery between now and the end of the year.
Members of the board of governors of the Fed in a recent meeting pointed to the declining rate of the Covid 19 spread, as well as President Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package, as reasons for feeling optimistic.
According to the Wall Street Journal, several Fed officials remarked that the relief package “could improve the position of small businesses hit by the pandemic, lift consumer spending, and contain long-term damage to the labor market.”
Notes the publication Business Insider: “Fed policymakers also anticipate that continued vaccinations will allow for lockdown measures to be relaxed even further, and drive strong growth over the next two years.”
According to the notes of the meeting published by the Fed, information provided to members of the group’s board of governors “suggested that the U.S. Gross Domestic Product was expanding in the first quarter of 2021 at a pace that was faster than the fourth quarter of last year.”
But those notes also added that the Gross Domestic Product had “not yet returned to the level seen before the onset of the pandemic.”
Fed officials also expressed optimism that the nation’s employment rate will increase in the months to come, which, in turn, will ramp up consumer spending.
The board of governors is more precisely forecasting a 1.6% increase in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product for the duration of this year, with a higher 2.1% increase in 2022.
By Garry Boulard
