Recession Panel Could Make Its Official U.S. Call Within Months

(Bloomberg) -- The group that officially will determine whether the U.S. economic slump sparked by the coronavirus qualifies as a recession is watching data and could announce prior to the November presidential election that the country’s longest-ever expansion is over.

A short but substantial drop in activity could be classified as a recession, said Stanford University professor Robert Hall, head of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s business cycle dating committee. The 1980 recession was “short but sharp” lasting just six months and required such a decision. “We decided it did,” Hall said.

President Donald Trump said Monday that the economy “may be” headed into a recession, taking a more downbeat tone on the situation than before. “This is a bad one,” he said of the virus, adding any downturn would be followed by “a tremendous surge” in activity.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was more cautious, telling reporters on Sunday after slashing rates to nearly zero that growth would be weak in the second quarter and it was hard to say when it would recover.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/recession-panel-could-official-u-201746374.html