White House stresses job creation, consumer spending ahead of key economic report
by Brad Dress - 07/25/22 7:50 AM ET
The Biden administration is leaning on strong job growth and healthy consumer spending ahead of a highly anticipated economic report this week that will signal how close the U.S. is to a recession.
Recession fears are looming ahead of Thursday’s gross domestic product (GDP) release measuring how much the economy grew from April to June.
But White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Director Brian Deese tweeted on Sunday the GDP data is “backward looking” and stressed that “hiring, spending, and production data look solid.”
Deese also shared a link to a CEA report that discusses how economists look more broadly at various economic factors to determine whether the economy has hit a recession, including payrolls, industrial production, real income and spending.
Despite a 40-year high inflation rate, a graph chart shows the National Bureau of Economic Research is not indicating a recession — or a significant downturn in the economy that usually lasts at least a few months — because spending, payroll, real income and production have all grown.
“Based on these data, it is unlikely that the decline in GDP in the first quarter of this year—even if followed by another GDP decline in the second quarter—indicates a recession,” CEA wrote in the analysis.
more
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/economy/3572646-white-house-stresses-job-creation-consumer-spending-ahead-of-economic-report/
