Slower growth new normal - Fed's Williams
Slower growth is no cause for alarm, but a "new normal" that should be expected, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York John Williams said on Wednesday, cautioning that the "positive tailwinds" that helped the economy grow at the rate it did are calming or being reversed.
A downturn in global growth, heightened geopolitical uncertainty, and the effect of tighter financial conditions are expected to slow the growth "considerably," to approximately 2%, althought the positive thing is that the slowdown is happening at a time when the labor market is very strong, Williams stated.
From the perspective of the monetary policy, the "overall picture" of the United States economy is "as good as it gets," the Fed official claimed, adding the central bank can "afford to be flexible and wait for data to guide its approach."