Executive Director Bank of America says economic growth is ‘better than people think’ and the Fed should stay on hold

Bank of America Executive director Brian Moynihan said on Wednesday that consumers continue to spend, and economic growth should be solid this year, though slower.

Despite the surveys indicating that Trust is on almost three -year low In the midst of increasing concerns about inflation, Moynihan said to CNBC that consumers show that consumers continue to shelter money, although they exceed the goods and in services.

“We are in this classic moment … where the consumer says,” I become more pessimistic, “in some polls and similar things,” he said during the time. “Box“Interview.” But if you actually look at what they are doing day by day, they continue to spend, which means that the economy should be better than people think. “

From the point of view of the numbers, this means gross growth of domestic product this year closer to 2% of recent trends closer to 3%, according to banking chief. Some of the slowdown will come from Tariff President Donald Trumpwhich Moynihan estimated that it would reduce growth of about 0.4 percent before the economy adjusts.

However, he called 2% level of “trend growth levels. This is what we all try to come 10 or 15 years after the financial crisis.”

“We see that the consumer is still solid, and that should be good for the economy,” Moynihan added. “There are a lot of questions out there and I think it will solve it. But right now, we’re not talking about what might happen, we’re talking about it. The consumer still consumes quite strongly in the first part of this year.”

The interview came the same day when Federal reserves will make its latest decision to interest rates. The markets of almost no chance of reducing at the meeting, and Moynihan supported the invitation of the bank that not only the central bank would not move on Wednesday, but will be waiting until 2026.

“I think the Fed would be a little careful about cutting, not knowing what the influence of the tariff would be,” he said. “It seems that they might want to stay in the fiery power they have built in the last year or something … should not be premature to try to increase the economy when growing to 2%.”

Moynihan added that it would be better to keep the interest rates of the “real interest rate” that was closer to 3% of almost zero that prevailed from a financial crisis to a pandemic pandemia.