Biden caps two years of action in business with new challenges ahead

Mr. Biden ended 2022 in festive spirit, vacationing in the Virgin Islands with his wife Jill, daughter Ashley and grandchildren Hunter and Natalie. Aides described him as in good spirits throughout the week, a mood Mr Biden reflected in the few brief public appearances he made in St Croix.

“Good year next year,” he told reporters after emerging from church on New Year’s Day. “Look forward to something.”

He gave a thumbs up.

Mr. Biden has stressed the positive aspects of the economic recovery since taking office less than a year after the rapidly ebbing pandemic recession. He emphasized strong job growth, particularly in manufacturing, and said the United States is better positioned than its peers to endure hardships for the global economy in the years to come.

Economic events have hampered this message, particularly rapidly rising consumer prices. Inflation hit a 40-year high last year under Mr Biden. It’s starting to improve but remains well above historical norms. Forecasts suggest that economic growth will slow dramatically this year as the Federal Reserve, along with other central banks around the world, continues to aggressively raise interest rates to curb price growth.

These rate hikes, combined with the lingering fallout from the war in Ukraine, threaten a deepening recession that could engulf the United States. Several major economies, including England and parts of continental Europe, have already entered the downturn. In the event of a contraction in America, Mr. Biden is likely to find that Congress is unwilling to spend money to try to revive growth.

“This is going to be a tough year for most of the world economy, tougher than the year we’re leaving,” Kristalina Georgieva, executive director of the International Monetary Fund, told CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday. But she added: “The US is the most resilient. The US could avoid a recession.”

Mr. Biden’s economic team claims that resilience is a direct result of the suite of legislation he steered through Congress in his first two years, which provided large parts of the economic agenda he set during the 2020 campaign and early in his tenure Has.