A Commerce Department report out today shows the U.S. economy shrank from April to June for a second straight quarter. It contracted at a .9% annual pace, following a 1.6% drop in January through March.
The decline in gross domestic product (GDP) is raising concerns that the U.S. may be approaching a recession, even as the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell sought Wednesday to counter that, pointing to a robust labor market with 11 million job openings and a low 3.6% unemployment rate.
Powell said he’s encouraged by such signs. “I do not think the U.S. is currently in a recession and the reason is there are just too many areas of the economy that are that are performing, you know, too well,” he said.
Powell announced that the U.S. is hiking interest rates for the fourth time this year in an effort to combat soaring prices.Â
Inflation is 9.1 percent right now, the highest rate in…
