Washington (AFP)
The economic crisis caused by the pandemic presents "fundamental differences" with the Great Depression and growth should resume faster despite very high unemployment and a deep recession, said Sunday the boss of the American Central Bank, Jerome Powell.
"I don't think this is a likely outcome at all," said Powell in a CBS interview about a Great Depression like the 1930s, citing a booming economy before the pandemic. , strong banks and an adequate response from the authorities.
However, he believes that a peak in the unemployment rate at 20 or 25% is likely, and that the drop in US GDP in the second quarter in the United States will be "easily in the 20, 30%".
But beyond the economic indicators that the Central Bank compiles and tries to anticipate, Mr. Powell stressed that the time was mainly to control the pandemic, in the absence of vaccine or treatment having proven therapeutic .
The debate is raging in the United States between supporters of a rapid reopening of the economy and those of a slow and reasoned opening to try to avoid a second wave of infections.
"You know, the thing that matters more than anything else at the moment is the medical indicators. It is the spread of the virus. These are all these things that are associated with it" such as measures of social distancing, explained Mr. Powell.
For him it is a sine qua non condition for the economy to restart and "we think that this may be the case from the third quarter".
© 2020 AFP