No clarity on whether US economy will return to pre-pandemic levels
According to CNN, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powel has cautioned that it’s not clear the US economy will ever return to its pre-COVID-19 status.
The US Bureau of Economic Analysis revised downward its estimate of growth in US real gross domestic product for the first quarter. It now says GDP contracted at an annual rate of 1.6% in the first quarter, down from its previous estimate of a 1.5% contraction.
Today’s estimate is the third estimate for GDP growth.
GDP had increased at an annual rate of 6.9% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Jerome Powel commented: “The economy is being driven by very different forces,” Powell said. “What we don’t know is whether we’ll be going back to something that looks like, or a little bit like, what we had before.”
