Yellen says US recession not ‘inevitable’ but expects ‘economy to slow’

theguardian.com:

Joe Biden’s treasury secretary Janet Yellen says she expects “the economy to slow” but continued insisting that a full-blown recession is not “at all inevitable”.

Yellen’s remarks on Sunday came days after the US central bank moved to sharply raise interest rates in an effort to contain soaring inflation.

She told ABC’s This Week host George Stephanopoulous that her financial outlook results from how the economy has “been growing at a very rapid rate, as the economy, as the labor market, has recovered and we have reached full employment”.

“It’s natural now that we expect a transition to steady and stable growth, but I don’t think a recession is at all inevitable,” Yellen added.

Pressed on the issue of inflation, which polls indicate is a top priority for US voters as the midterm elections in November approach, Yellen said inflation causes are global, not local, and those factors are unlikely to diminish immediately.

Yellen said some trade tariffs on China inherited from the administration of former President Donald Trump made “no strategic sense”. She added that Biden was reviewing them as a way to bring down inflation.

“Clearly, inflation is unacceptably high,” Yellen said. “It’s President Biden’s top priority to bring it down.”

The US central bank’s chairperson, Jerome Powell, has also said “it’s his goal to bring it down while maintaining a strong labor economy,” according to Yellen.

The comments from Biden’s top economist came reflect the administration’s ongoing push to change the national narrative around the economy.

Yellen’s comments were more in line with that push than they have been recently.

Last month, she broke with the administration’s preferred talking points when she admitted to the American public that she “was