The United States could outpace China this year, the US president said at a press conference with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo. In 2022, the American economy is going to expand faster than China’s for the first time in 40 years, Joe Biden said.
Bloomberg economists were the first to make such a forecast. “The world's second-largest economy will grow just 2% this year, compared with 2.8% for the US,” Bloomberg Economics reported. The American leader then confirmed the news. “Our GDP is going to grow faster than China’s for the first time in 40 years. Now, does that mean we don’t have problems? We do. We have problems that the rest of the world has, but less consequential than the rest of the world has because of our internal growth and strength,” the president replied to the questions of whether a recession in the United States is inevitable and whether Americans should be prepared for a recession.
In the first quarter of 2022, the American economy slowed amid high recession risks entailed by the coronavirus pandemic two years ago. GDP fell by 1.4% year-on-year. However, the disappointing results do not indicate the country would soon enter a recession. Economists suggest the US economy would recover in the second quarter amid steady growth in employment and wages. The US is expected to grow even in spite of the Fed’s plans to hike rates to tame persistent inflation.