By Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser said on Friday that recent economic data showed the “width of the runway for (a) soft landing has gotten much bigger” and that immigration had helped the U.S. labor force rebound.
Lael Brainard, head of the National Economic Council, told reporters in Washington that “we’ve seen quite positive indicators, that inflation really has come down and it’s going to continue to come down while the economy is going to maintain strength going into the next year.”
Brainard said that while financial markets reflect a more positive view about the economy’s path, “it will take time for people to feel financially more secure.” Biden, she said, was “still looking at everything we can do to lower costs.”
Brainard’s remarks echoed those of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said on Wednesday she saw a consistent pattern of inflation falling over time and turbulence in the job market settling down.
Brainard also credited immigration for helping the nation’s workforce recover.
“Immigration or the share of foreign born (people) in the workforce has been (an) important contributor to the great rebound in the labor force over the course of the last year… That’s certainly a part of overall policy considerations,” she said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Writing by Katharine Jackson; editing by Rami Ayyub)
