ATLANTA Federal Reserve Bank president Raphael Bostic said the US economic recovery is in danger of stalling due to the recent spike in coronavirus cases across many American states.
High-frequency data had shown a “levelling off” of economic activity both in terms of business openings and mobility, he told the Financial Times newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.
“There are a couple of things that we are seeing and some of them are troubling and might suggest that the trajectory of this recovery is going to be a bit bumpier than it might otherwise,” he told the newspaper.
“And so we’re watching this very closely, trying to understand exactly what’s happening.”
California, Texas and Florida are all among two dozen US states reporting high infection rates as a percentage of diagnostic tests conducted over the past week, an alarming sign of a virus still spreading largely unchecked throughout much of the country.
The US death toll from the virus has topped 130,000. – July 7, 2020, Reuters
