{"id":11171,"date":"2022-09-27T14:24:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T21:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/?p=11171"},"modified":"2022-09-27T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T21:24:00","slug":"us-faces-risk-of-long-stagflation-struggle-moodys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/us-faces-risk-of-long-stagflation-struggle-moodys\/","title":{"rendered":"US faces risk of long stagflation struggle: Moody\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"large medium article-body\">\n<h3>Dive Brief:<\/h3>\n<p>The U.S. faces a risk of long-term stagflation, or near-zero economic growth along with persistently high inflation \u2014\u00a0an outcome especially harmful to companies that are vulnerable to rising raw materials prices or a slump in \u201cdiscretionary demand,\u201d according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moodys.com\/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1343277\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Moody\u2019s Investors Service<\/a>.<br \/>\n\u201cThe potential for a long-lasting stagflationary environment remains a concern that will persist until the current bout of inflation firmly subsides,\u201d Moody\u2019s said. The odds of recession during the next 12 months are 59.5%, Moody\u2019s Analytics said in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moodys.com\/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1343316\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a separate report<\/a>.<br \/>\nA stagflationary economy would feature an unmooring of inflation expectations, \u201ca much more aggressive\u201d withdrawal of monetary stimulus and persistently weak economic growth, Moody\u2019s said. High energy costs would hit earnings in sectors such as airlines, autos, chemicals, metals, forest products and shipping, while rising materials costs would harm construction and manufacturing companies.<\/p>\n<h3>Dive Insight:<\/h3>\n<p>Concerns about a return of 1970s-style stagflation have risen as economic growth slows and price pressures remain high despite the most aggressive withdrawal of stimulus by the Federal Reserve since the 1980s. The murkier outlook has compelled many CFOs to redraw their plans for prices, borrowing and wages.<\/p>\n<p>The economy will probably not grow this year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fanniemae.com\/research-and-insights\/forecast\/housing-and-interest-rates-continue-suggest-recession-likely-2023\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fannie Mae said on Wednesday<\/a>. Next year, high inflation, Fed tightening and a slump in the housing market will probably push down gross domestic product by 0.5%.<\/p>\n<p>The Conference Board, citing the reduction in Fed stimulus, predicted this month that the economy will tip into a brief, shallow recession from the fourth quarter through the first quarter of 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The economy may already be in a contraction. It shrank 0.6% during the second quarter after slumping 1.6% during the first three months of 2022, meeting the common definition of a recession as at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThough the U.S. economic data have been decent, the economy is still at risk,\u201d according to Moody\u2019s Analytics. The economy \u201cis vulnerable to anything going wrong, including further tightening in financial market conditions or an unexpected hike in energy prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pessimism about the economy is far from universal. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Monday forecast that the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oecd.org\/economic-outlook\/september-2022?utm_source=Adestra&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=economic-outlook-digital-report&amp;utm_campaign=eco-outlook-september2022&amp;utm_term=pac\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">economy will grow 1.5% this year<\/a> and 0.5% in 2023. Yet its estimates are 1 percentage point and 0.7 percentage point less than OECD forecasts in June, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Fed officials on Wednesday also trimmed their expectations for economic growth. They forecast a gross domestic product gain of just 0.2% this year, down from a June estimate of 1.7%. For next year, they predict 1.2% growth compared with a 1.7% forecast in June.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Fed is clear it will not countenance stagflation and will aggressively tighten monetary policy to force the economy into recession to wring out the high inflation and inflation expectations,\u201d Moody\u2019s Chief Economist Mark Zandi <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moodys.com\/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1343316\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said in a report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The central bank Wednesday intensified its fight against the highest inflation in nearly four decades, raising the benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points for the third straight meeting and pushing up estimates for further increases in borrowing costs through next year.<\/p>\n<p>Policymakers lifted the target range for the federal funds rate to a range between 3% and 3.25%. The median projection showed that they expect to lift the rate to 4.4% by the end of 2022 \u2013 a full percentage point above their June estimate \u2013 and to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/monetarypolicy\/files\/fomcprojtabl20220921.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">4.6% by the end of next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The surge in consumer prices slowed last month to 8.3%, but the decline from 8.5% in July was less than forecast and well above the central bank\u2019s 2% inflation target.<\/p>\n<p>Shelter, food and medical care costs rose, driving much of the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/cpi.nr0.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Labor Department said Sept. 20<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether the economy suffers a downturn or skirts one depends on if inflation continues to steadily moderate back to the Fed\u2019s target,\u201d Zandi said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-article-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"post-article-topics\">\n<p>Filed Under:<br \/>\n                <a class=\"topic analytics t-article-end-topic\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/topic\/economy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Economy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"itemsource\">This item was originally posted here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/us-faces-risk-long-stagflation-struggle-moodys\/632716\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Read More<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dive Brief: The U.S. faces a risk of long-term stagflation, or near-zero economic growth along with persistently high inflation \u2014\u00a0an &#8230; <a title=\"US faces risk of long stagflation struggle: Moody\u2019s\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/us-faces-risk-of-long-stagflation-struggle-moodys\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about US faces risk of long stagflation struggle: Moody\u2019s\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1066,457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-posts","category-construction-dive","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}