The US administration led by President Donald Trump expects America's growth to bounce back in the next 12 months, after the country recorded a muted growth in the first quarter, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Bessent said that the contraction of growth in the first quarter of the current financial year will reverse this time next year as the economic agenda of the US takes root.
The top official predicted that Donald Trump's pro-growth trade policies, tax cut agenda and deregulation will together result in a pickup in activity soon.
“I expect certainly by this time next year we will be north of 3 [per cent growth], and that we will be turning the corner toward the end of the year,” Bessent told Bloomberg TV.
During his campaign in 2024, Donald Trump had promised to make the lives of lower and middle income voters better.
The US Tresury Secretary, however, flagged one issue that may hinder growth. He said the only concern he had was that Democrats and courts might derail the works, growth.
During the first three months of the current fiscal, the US economy at an annualised rate of 0.3 per cent as businesses stocked up on imports in advance, in anticipation of the tariffs announced by Donald Trump.
Bessent also spoke about the number of projects and key economic packages that the government is currently pushing, including the tax reform that Trump has labelled as “one big, beautiful bill”.
Bessent sees ‘several’ large trade deals soon, India deal on cards
Scott Bessent said there could be “several large” trade deals announced in the next couple of weeks, adding that he expects Trump administration officials will meet with their Chinese counterparts again in-person to negotiate those tariffs.
“My sense is, over the next couple of weeks we’re going to have several large deals announced,” Bessent said during the interview.
“I expect that we will be negotiating in-person with them again.”
Bessent said that most US trading partners have been negotiating “in very good faith,” and that the European Union is an “exception.”
Trump had on Friday threatened to impose a 50 per cent tariff on EU imports.
“I think this is in response just to the EU’s pace. I would hope that this would light a fire under the EU,” Bessent said regarding Trump's tariff threat.
The US is ‘far along’ in striking a deal with India, he added.
Bessent declined to specify which nations the US is likely to announce deals with in the coming weeks. He did say in a Fox interview that “we’re far along with India.”
