Fed Chair predicts challenging few months for global economy

Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve System (FRS) of the United States, promised the world economy a few more challenging months in a previous speech to the Banking Committee in Congress.

Report says, citing the text published on the US Federal Reserve website, Powell attributes the difficult times for the global economy to the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He noted that the current situation in the global economy would remain tense soon. It will not be affected even by the development of several coronavirus vaccines at once by the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and their promises about the imminent release of this drug into circulation.

"The latest news about vaccines is very positive for the medium term. At the moment, significant difficulties and uncertainties remain, including the timing of the introduction of vaccines, their production, and distribution, as well as their effectiveness for different population groups," said Powell.

In his opinion, different countries' authorities need to maintain programs to support the economy and their population in the current conditions.

Thus, Powell again expressed his disagreement with the policy of the US Treasury. Notably, in November, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the imminent closure of five of the nine emergency assistance programs that the government is implementing together with the fed against the pandemic background. There will remain, according to Mnuchin, four programs. The FRS considers the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to be the most important of them.