Janet Yellen says inflation problem unlikely to result from stimulus

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen dismissed fears that President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief bill is so big that it will cause an inflation problem.

“I really don’t think that’s going to happen,” Yellen said in an interview with MSNBC Monday, when asked about concerns that consumer-price pressures could surge as a result of deploying the stimulus despite the economy already gathering pace. Inflation before the pandemic “was too low rather than too high,” she noted.

The House is planning to take up the stimulus package on Tuesday, following Saturday’s passage in the Senate.

Yellen said the plan should return the US to “full employment” next year, and provides hundreds of millions of Americans the “help they need” to cope with the pandemic.

Once the bill is passed, the agenda will turn to address underlying problems in the economy that have contributed to inequality, Yellen said.