Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) in New York City, USA on April 23, 2024.
Fresh Mike | Reuters
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday that he won’t rule out stagflation, even with more confidence that inflation has reached record highs recently.
“I would say the worst outcome is stagflation — recession, higher inflation,” Dimon said at the fall conference of the Council of Institutional Investors in Brooklyn, New York. – By the way, I wouldn’t take it from the table.
The chief executive of the largest US bank made his comments as investors focused on signs of slowing growth. Recent readings pointed to increasing price pressures toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target, but employment and manufacturing reports showed some signs of easing.
Investors will get some additional key data this week, with the consumer price index and producer price index coming on Wednesday and Thursday.
But Dimon worries that a number of inflationary forces looming on the horizon, such as higher deficits and rising infrastructure spending, will continue to weigh on an economy still reeling from the effects of higher interest rates.
“They’re all inflationary, mostly in the short term, over the next few years,” Dimon said. “So it’s hard to look at (it) and say, ‘Well, no, we’re out of the woods.’ I don’t think so.”
The head of the bank had previously warned of an economic slowdown. In August, he said the probability of a “soft landing” was about 35% to 40%, indicating that a recession was the more likely outcome.
