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The American economy will contract between 20% and 30% in the second quarter as a result of the measures taken to curb the coronavirus, as Kevin Hassett, an economic adviser to the White House predicted on Monday.
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Hassett, in an interview with the financial chain CNBC, assured that the fall of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the US will be between April and June the worst since the Great Depression.
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According to the economist, the GDP figures for the first quarter, which will be published this Wednesday, will already be negative, but The worst will be seen in the second quarter, when you expect a contraction of between 20% and 30%.
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For him third trimester, this adviser to the Donald Trump Administration trusts that a “quite positive” trend as the activity is reactivated.
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Hassett predicted that the unemployment rate in April it will reach 16% or 17%, shooting up from the 4.4% registered in March as the effects of the pandemic are felt in the country’s businesses.
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According to the latest data, more than 26 million workers have applied for unemployment benefits in the past five weeks, blotting out all the jobs created since the 2008 financial crisis. Analysts calculate that the unemployment rate could have already reached almost 18%, a sharp contrast to the situation that existed until February, when the United States, with unemployment that for months was around 3.5%, registered the lowest unemployment figures in half a century.
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Hassett, who until last year was director of the US Government’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), recently returned to the White House as economic adviser.
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Friday, Trump signed a third $ 483 billion stimulus plan to support the United States economy, hard hit by restrictions imposed in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, which includes $ 320 billion for companies to keep their doors open and pay their employees, after the first tranche of $ 349 billion was sold out.
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That first plan helped 1.6 million businesses and protected more than 30 million jobs, and with the additional funds, “tens of millions of workers will benefit from this critical relief,” according to the Treasury.
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However, the statement cautioned that lenders “should carefully review the regulations and certifications required to obtain the loan,” a reference to rules that prohibit large companies from benefiting from this program. The government tightened the rules after the controversy because large restaurant chains received tens of millions of dollars from the program.
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(With information from EFE and AFP)
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