The US Federal Reserve (Fed) found on Wednesday “little or no” economic growth throughout the country, in parallel to the increase in products derived from tariffs and some negative effects of artificial intelligence (AI) and immigration policies in employment.
In the Book Beige, the publication in which the Fed analyzes the economic conditions of the 12 districts in which the country divides, the regulatory body pointed out that most of these “reported little or no change in economic activity” compared to the previous month, and the only ones that were singled out (four) had a “modest growth.”
“In all districts, the contacts reported a stagnant consumer expense or decline because, for many homes, salaries are not following the rhythm of growing prices,” says the agency, which transmits that the most cited negative factors were the “economic uncertainty and tariffs.”
Almost all districts alluded to the tariff policy of the Government of Donald Trump as the reason for the increase and pointed out that it has especially affected the cost of inputs, for which companies generally hope to raise the prices of their products to be able to “continue in the coming months”.
The Fed also includes some effects of AI on its observations: it argues that the development of technology has led to an “increase in data centers” and has generated an “unusual strength” in the commercial real estate sector in some districts, but also begins to decimate employment.
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The companies in most districts expressed doubts about the hiring of workers in the midst of uncertainty, and in several reported a reduction in employment “due to wear, sometimes encouraged by return policies to the office, and facilitated other times by greater automation, including the new AI tools.”
Likewise, half of the districts reflected a “reduction in the availability of immigrant labor” due to the government’s restrictive policy, a tendency with greater impact on the construction sector, especially in the districts of New York, Richmond, St. Louis and San Francisco.
At the end of August, the president of the FED, Jerome Powell, in the symposium of Jackson Hole, pointed out that in September the organism he directs could choose to cut interest rates for the first time in nine months, stage in which they have been located in a range of 4.25 to 4.5 %.
“The perspectives and the changing balance of risks (of the economy) can justify an adjustment of the position of our policy (monetary),” Powell said, to whom Trump has been pressing precisely for time to lower the types.
The next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Fed, which makes the decisions in this regard, is scheduled for September 16 and 17.
With EFE information.
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