U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen denied the possibility of the U.S. economy heading into a recession Thursday.
Yellen said she disagreed with rapper Cardi B’s assessment that the U.S. is headed into a recession at the New York Times’s DealBook D.C. policy forum Thursday with CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, The Hill reported.
“Do you know who Cardi B is?” Sorkin asked, according to the outlet. Yellen laughed and said she knew who the rapper was but she wasn’t necessarily a close follower of hers. (RELATED: Here’s Where Inflation Is Taking The Biggest Bite Out Of Americans’ Wallets)
“Sure,” she said. “I mean, I don’t have that much time for her. But I am alive, you know.”
Sorkin asked Yellen her reaction to Cardi B tweeting: “When y’all think they going to announce that we going into a recession?”
Yellen said she wouldn’t be admitting that the U.S. is heading for a recession any time soon. “Don’t look to me to announce it. I’m not going to announce it. I don’t think we’re going to have a recession,” Yellen said.
Biden’s treasury secretary admitted she was wrong about her past economic predictions on May 31 during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” Yellen told Blitzer. She attempted to pin rising inflation in the U.S. on “unanticipated” factors like the Russia invasion of Ukraine and new strains of COVID-19 that affected the economy badly.
Yellen said the Federal Reserve has the responsibility to take action toward curbing inflation. She announced that the Biden administration “is focused on supplementing what the Fed does with actions we can take to lower the costs that Americans face for important expenditures they have in their budgets.”
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) hit a 40-year high, reaching 8.6% in May, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday. Shelter, gasoline and food saw the highest price increases in the last 12-months.