Nothing to suggest a recession in the US, says Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen

US Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said on Thursday she did not anticipate a recession in the US. Yellen added she expected the growth rate to be slow in the country.

The New York Times quoted her as saying at the Times’s DealBook D.C. policy forum that there is nothing to suggest a recession was in the works. Janet Yellen added she expected economic growth in the US to be slower than the rapid clip of last year’s rebound. Yellen said she did see a path to curbing demand without causing a deep contraction. 

“We want to transition to stable, strong growth,” she said. Yellen mentioned she expected the US economy to slow as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to tame inflation.

The Reuters reported Janet as saying that gasoline prices were unlikely to fall anytime soon. Though she admitted the prices began to increase even before the Russia-Ukraine war, the price rise was a rebound from low levels during the pandemic. She added she would not recommend that people saving for retirement invest in cryptocurrencies as it is a very risky investment.

Yellen said the US would be very unhappy if it saw China actively trying to help Russia get around US sanctions. However, she added the US was not seeing significant evidence of that.