WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House officials pushed back on Sunday against concerns that economic growth may be faltering, saying they saw little risk of recession despite a volatile week on global bond markets, and insisting their trade war with China was doing no damage to the United States.
“There is no recession in sight,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on “Fox News Sunday.””Consumers are working. Their wages are rising. They are spending and they are saving...I think we are in pretty good shape.”
U.S. stock markets tanked last week on recession fears with all three major U.S. indexes closing down about 3% on Wednesday only to pair their losses by Friday due to expectations the European Central Bank might cut rates.
For a brief time last week bond investors also demanded a higher interest rate on 2-year Treasury bonds than for 10-year Treasury bonds, often construed as a sign of lost faith in near-term economic growth.
However, trade adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday likewise dismissed last week’s warning signs, saying “good” economic dynamics were encouraging investors to move money to the United States.
“We have the strongest economy in the world and money is coming here for our stock market. It’s also coming here to chase yield in our bond markets,” Navarro told ABC’s “This Week,”
That sort “flight to safety” is typically driven by concerns of global economic trouble - in this case the possibility that the Trump administration’s tariff battle with China may dampen business investment and growth worldwide.
The tariffs on Chinese goods, Navarro said, “are not
