On June 19 local time, US Treasury Secretary Yellen said that the economic recession many Americans are worried about "is not imminent at all", but "unacceptable prices" may accompany consumers throughout 2022.

As inflation remains high, the Federal Reserve has taken active measures to deal with inflation, and comments about economic recession have emerged one after another this year. Last Thursday, the Federal Reserve announced a 75 basis point increase in interest rates, the largest increase since 1994.

Federal Reserve Chairman Powell also hinted that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) intends to continue to actively tighten monetary policy to curb inflation.

But at the same time, many people expect that the resilience of consumer spending and employment growth will pull the United States out of recession. Yellen is one of them. She said in an interview, "I expect the economy will slow down and transition to stable growth, which is a natural process, but I don't think recession is inevitable."

On the other hand, although Yellen is optimistic about avoiding economic recession, the global economy will still face serious threats in the coming months, such as the continuation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, soaring inflation and the COVID-19. "Obviously, the inflation rate is unacceptably high," Yellen said

However, she does not believe that the decline in consumer spending will be the cause of the recession. Yellen said that the U.S. labor market was the strongest after the war, and said that "inflation has been very high since this year, which led to an increase in inflation for the rest of the year."

Yellen believes that the cause of stubborn inflation is "global, not local". She pointed out that the causes include objective factors such as the interruption of energy supply caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

She added: "these factors are unlikely to subside immediately, and there are too many uncertainties related to the global situation."