US Economy

A "buoyant" US economy is poised to see accelerated growth and lower unemployment this year. But big federal budget debts "represent a growing stability risk," the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday. The 191-country lending organisation's assessment of the world's biggest economy was mostly positive. The IMF saw US gross domestic product - the country's output of goods and services - growing 2.4 per cent in fourth-quarter 2026 from the last three months of 2025, up from 2.2 per cent growth the year before. It sees US unemployment dropping from 4.5 per cent in late 2025 to 4.1 per cent in 2026 and inflation falling to the Federal Reserve's 2 per cent target by 2027. IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said the Fed, which cut its benchmark interest rate three times in 2025, could afford to push it down to around 3.4 per cent from 3.6 per cent currently. But it should hold off on deeper cuts barring a "material worsening'' in the American job market, she said. The United

Rising bankruptcies and weak job growth signal mounting pressure on small firms

Trump's high-growth push - fuelled by stimulus, deregulation and rate cuts - may heat up the US economy but risks persistent inflation and financial instability

To assuage cost-weary voters and combat inflation, the president has resorted to a mix of threats and punishments, targeting companies and policymakers alike

The US president said the proposed cap, set to begin on January 20, would stop excessive charges by card issuers, though details on enforcement and industry compliance remain unclear

Registering an annualised rate of real GDP growth of 4.3 per cent in Q3 2025, the US economy appeared to have grown at the fastest pace in roughly two years

Taking a dig at the previous Joe Biden administration, Trump said in his address that he 'inherited a mess'

The address, coming near the end of Donald Trump's first year back in the White House, is set for a pivotal moment as his poll numbers soften and the economy faces headwinds

Astonishingly, these shakeups have failed to unsettle the US or global economy - but 2026 will tell whether that continues

Black Friday may no longer be the retail bacchanalia of years past, when the promise of one-time bargains caused people to leave Thanksgiving tables for malls where some customers got into fistfights over toys or TVs. But the event still has enough enthusiasts to make it the biggest shopping day in the US. For that reason, the day retains its crown as the official start of the holiday shopping season. This year's kickoff comes as companies navigate an uncertain economic environment and wrestle with the volatility of President Donald Trump's wide-ranging tariffs on imported goods. Many have absorbed some of the costs and pulled back on hiring instead of raising prices for customers. Consumer confidence in the US economy fell this month to the lowest since April when Trump announced his tariffs in the aftermath of the government shutdown, weak hiring and stubborn inflation, according to a report The Conference Board issued Tuesday. Shoppers nonetheless have remained resilient and ..

President Donald Trump is increasingly counting on the tech sector and the development of artificial intelligence to deliver on his economic agenda, a reality laid bare this week as he hosted Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The crown prince has committed to invest USD 1 trillion with US companies, a pledge that is largely about using Saudi Arabia's oil and natural gas reserves to pivot his nation into becoming an AI data hub. We will work closely with friends and partners like those in this room to build the largest, most powerful, most innovative AI ecosystem in the world, Trump said at the US-Saudi Investment Forum on Wednesday. Sitting in the front row of the audience at the Kennedy Center were Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang and tech billionaire Elon Musk. Trump took credit for the new investments and stock market performance this year both of which have been a function of the AI buildout. For all of Trump's claims that his tariffs are generating new investmen

The report, which was initially scheduled for release on October 7, was delayed because of the recently ended 43-day shutdown of the government

Trump's pitch came nearly two weeks after Republicans suffered prominent defeats in off-year state and local elections where affordability concerns were front and center

The longest federal government shutdown in US history appears to be nearing an end, but not without leaving a mark on an already-struggling economy. About 1.25 million federal workers haven't been paid since October 1. Thousands of flights have been cancelled, a trend that is expected to continue this week even as Congress moves toward reopening the government. Government contract awards have slowed and some food aid recipients have seen their benefits interrupted. Most of the lost economic activity will be recovered when the government reopens, as federal workers will receive back pay. But some cancelled flights won't be retaken, missed restaurant meals won't be made up, and some postponed purchases will end up not happening at all. Short-lived shutdowns are usually invisible in the data, but this one will leave a lasting mark," Gregory Daco, chief economist at accounting giant EY said, "both because of its record length and the growing disruptions to welfare programs and travel.

By selling more fossil fuels and avoiding the expense of meeting green regulations, the US would see its GDP grow by about 1% more than it would have had it continued the clean energy transition

The government shutdown likely means there won't be an inflation report next month for the first time in more than seven decades, the White House said Friday, leaving Wall Street and the Federal Reserve without crucial information about consumer prices. Because surveyors cannot deploy to the field, the White House has learned there will likely NOT be an inflation release next month for the first time in history, the Trump administration said in an email. Some of the inflation data is collected electronically, but most is gathered in person by government employees who visit stores across the country. The Bureau of Labour Statistics, which prepares the inflation report, has already reduced the data collected each month because the Trump administration's hiring freeze left some cities without surveyors. The announcement follows Friday's release of September inflation data, which showed prices ticked higher but remained lower than many economists had expected. That report, which was ...

The only thing slowing us down here is this government shutdown, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said

The government shutdown is delaying another major economic report, leaving policymakers at the Federal Reserve with a cloudier picture even as the economy enters a challenging phase of stubbornly persistent inflation and a sharp slowdown in hiring. The Labour Department's monthly inflation data was scheduled for release Wednesday, but late last week was postponed until October 24. The department is recalling some employees to assemble the data, which was collected before the shutdown began. The figures are needed for the government to calculate the annual cost of living adjustment for tens of millions of recipients of benefit programmes such as Social Security. The shutdown could make things worse for agencies like the Fed if it continues, because government agencies cannot collect the raw data that are then compiled into the monthly reports on jobs, inflation, and other economic trends. The September employment report, for example, which was due to be released October 3 but was no

The US and global economies will grow a bit more this year than previously forecast as the Trump administration's tariffs have so far proved less disruptive than expected, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, though the agency also said the extensive duties still pose risks. The United States' economy will expand 2 per cent in 2025, the IMF projected in its influential semiannual forecast, the World Economic Outlook. That is slightly higher than the 1.9 per cent forecast in the IMF's last update in July and 1.8 per cent in April. The US should grow 2.1 per cent next year, also just one-tenth of a per cent faster than its previous projection, the IMF said. Its current forecasts are still down from a year ago, however, a sign that the international lending agency expects the tariffs to weaken the US economy, in part by creating more uncertainty for businesses. Last October, the IMF forecast the US would grow 2.2 per cent this year. All the projections also represent a ...

From Wall Street trading floors to the Federal Reserve to economists sipping coffee in their home offices, the first Friday morning of the month typically brings a quiet hush around 8:30 am eastern as everyone awaits the Labor Department's crucial monthly jobs report. But with the government shut down, no information was released Friday about hiring in September. The interruption in the data has occurred at a particularly uncertain time, when policymakers at the Federal Reserve and Wall Street investors would need more data on the economy, rather than less. Hiring has ground nearly to a halt, threatening to drag down the broader economy. Yet at the same time, consumers particularly higher-income earners are still spending and some businesses are ramping up investments in data centres developing artificial intelligence models. Whether that is enough to revive hiring remains to be seen. It's the first time since a government shutdown in 2013 that the jobs report has been delayed. .