Yellen says economy slowing but not yet in recession


Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that economic growth was slowing but strong hiring indicates it hasn't fallen into a recession yet, The Associated Press reports.
Yellen's comments on NBC's Meet the Press came ahead of a flurry of economic reports expected to provide insights into the impact of high inflation and rising interest rates. The data will cover home sales, consumer confidence, and other key areas, but the report expected to get the most attention is the Commerce Department's first estimate of second-quarter economic output.
Some economists expect that report, due Thursday, to show that the economy contracted for the second quarter in a row, after the first quarter's 1.6 percent contraction. Two straight quarters of contraction meets the informal definition of a recession.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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