That was the consensus of two noted economists at today’s Economic Forecast. Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Jay Bryson, global economist for Wells Fargo Securities, took the stage in front of 700 business, elected, and community leaders for one of the Chamber’s most popular events.
We’ll dive deeper into the economists’ presentations in further blog posts, but here are some of the morning’s highlights.
Employment in North Carolina is growing in line with the national rate, while the Triangle has been outpacing it. This is nothing new for our region—the Triangle has generally grown faster than the national economy over the past decade.
One of the reasons the area's economy has been outpacing the U.S. is partly due to the growth of population. #EcoForecast16
— Wake County Econ Dev (@RaleighWake) January 7, 2016
The broad takeaway is that even though interest rates are likely to be lower than usual for the next few years, monetary policy is still highly accommodative right now. Interest rate increases within the range envisioned by FOMC participants would be relatively slow by historic standards, and would still leave policy in an accommodative stance. Such increases should be viewed as a sign of the strength of the U.S. economy—which is good news.
Jeff Lacker: U.S. #economy expanded solidly since Great Recession #EcoForecast16.
— Jeanne MillikenBonds (@JeanneBondsNC) January 7, 2016