Retail Group Tempers Economy Fears

National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said that the nation’s economic system is in the process of being rebalanced in ways that are testing its resilience, but the data suggests an ongoing expansion.

“Though many people fear an extreme cooling off of the economy, there is not an overwhelming amount of evidence to support such predictions,” Kleinhenz said.

Kleinhenz’s remarks came in the June issue of NRF’s Monthly Economic Review, which noted that the latest Blue Chip Economic Indicators survey of economists projects that gross domestic product will climb 2.6 percent this year and another 2.1 percent in 2023.

“Increased interest rates will mean higher borrowing costs across the economy at the same time higher prices keep eroding the purchasing power of the U.S. consumer. But the central bank needs to act in order to prevent inflation from being baked into the economy and to reduce the risk that expectations of inflation will become unanchored,” he said.

Source: Monthly Economic Review , nrf.com