A former economic adviser to President Trump said the world appears to be on the cusp of a recession because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think that the odds of a global recession are close to 100% right now,” former White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett told CNN on Monday.
“We just ran the numbers carefully over the weekend, and we think second quarter’s going to be about minus 5%, and we think the jobs number in early April might be as much as minus a million or so because … nobody is going to get hired next week,” he added. “You’re going to have one really bad quarter. If you’re going to have a recession, then you’ve got to have two bad quarters, and I think that’s going to depend on whether we get ahead of the curve on the coronavirus, and that’s a big unknown right now.”
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Trump has called on Congress to pass a payroll tax cut to help ease the effects of the coronavirus on consumer spending.
The Federal Reserve lowered its interest rate target to zero over the weekend to protect the economy from the pandemic. The surprise cut was the second emergency action taken by the Fed in the past month as it grapples with the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Last week, markets plunged into bear market territory, ending its 11-year bull run. U.S. stocks plunged Monday morning, with the S&P 500 falling more than 7%, which triggered a halt in trading at the New York Stock Exchange, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 2,200 points.
