White House won’t say if end of rate hikes signals pending recession
Naomi Lim
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The White House would not speculate about the likelihood of a recession after the Federal Reserve indicated its decision to raise interest rates to 5.25% could be its last increase after 10 consecutive hikes.
“I’m not going to get into the Fed’s policies, monetary policies from here,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the Washington Examiner. “They are an independent agency. We are giving them the space to make the decision on monetary policies. We are not going to interfere in their policies. I’m not going to get into a hypothetical from here.”
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During dueling press conferences, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed the central bank was bumping up interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, increasing the cash rate by 5 points since early last year as it tries to counter inflation amid two regional bank failures and a debt ceiling crisis.
“No one should assume that the Fed can protect the economy from the potential short- and long-term effects of a failure to pay our bills on time,” Powell told reporters.
Biden has repeatedly underscored his confidence that the economy would not go into recession, with Jean-Pierre amplifying his position from the podium.
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“When we look at how strong the economy is, it’s because of the president’s work, what he’s been able to do: building an economy from the bottom up, middle out,” she said in March. “And you see that with the jobs that’s been created, more than 12 million jobs just last month. In the jobs report, we … saw 300,000 jobs created. And that continues because of the work that this president has put forward, because of … these historic economic policies … that have passed under this administration.”
“Because of what I just laid out, we do not see a recession or a pre-recession,” she said. “We see a strong economy, and it’s because of the work that this president has done.”
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