Yellen: the U.S. can avoid recession

The United States can avoid a recession, given the fact that inflation and supply chain problems are beginning to ease, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday.

“A recession is not inevitable,” Yellen said, addressing reporters after speaking at an event in Fort Worth, Texas. The Treasury chief added that rental housing prices have also peaked and begun to decline.

According to Yellen, the labor market is also slowly beginning to return to normal. Companies are lowering their expectations for earnings growth and cutting back on hiring plans. In addition, the number of people leaving jobs of their own volition has declined, and no significant layoffs have occurred.

“I believe we are on the right track in terms of reducing inflation. A recession is not inevitable,” she said.

Yellen also said she believes recent changes in the value of the dollar largely reflect fundamental factors. She declined to say whether the dollar had peaked against other currencies.

Yellen arrived in Fort Worth, where the Federal Reserve is headquartered, to take part in a ceremony to issue the first dollar bills signed by two women, Treasury Secretary and Chief Treasurer Lynn Malerba, who became the first Native American woman to be appointed to the post.

The head of the Treasury Department said the new $1 and $5 bills commemorate the contributions of all women working in the department and the economy as a whole.

The banknotes will be delivered to the Federal Reserve this month and will go into circulation next year.

The mint in Fort Worth prints more than 50 percent of all paper dollars issued in the United States each year. Another plant in Washington will begin printing the new bills in January or February, a senior official at the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Currency Issuance said.