Monday, 27 Apr 2020 08:17 AM MYT
“It’s a really grave situation,” President Donald Trump’s adviser, Kevin Hassett, told the ABC programme“This is the biggest negative shock that our economy, I think, has ever seen. We’re going to be looking at an unemployment rate that approaches rates that we saw during the Great Depression” of the 1930s, Hassett added.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts US gross domestic product will contract at nearly a 40 per cent annual rate in the second quarter, with unemployment cresting at 16 per cent in the third quarter. But even next year, the CBO sees the jobless rate still averaging above 10 per cent.
“I’m sure that over the next three or four weeks, everybody’s going to pull together and come up with a plan to give us the best chance possible for a V-shaped recovery,” Hassett told ABC. “I ... don’t think you get it if we don’t have another round of really solid legislation.”Tensions on Capitol Hill
New York City needs US$7.4 billion in federal aid to offset economic losses from the coronavirus, its mayor said yesterday. Trump has shown a willingness to support aid for cities and states, but some fellow Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — have voiced wariness, citing a mounting federal debt load.