Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said on Wednesday that consumers are continuing to spend, although this year is slower and economic growth should be stable.
Although the investigation shows Confidence is at a low point in nearly three years While concerns over inflation are growing, Moynihan told CNBC that spending data shows consumers are still raising funds, despite moving from goods to services.
“We are in this classic moment… what consumers are saying here, ‘I feel even more pessimistic in some surveys and things like that,” he said inSquawk Box“Interview.” But if you actually look at what they are doing every day, they keep spending, which means the economy should be better than people think. ”
From a digital perspective, this means that this year’s GDP growth is close to 3% from the most recent trend. Some slowdowns will come from President Donald Trump’s tariffsMoynihan is expected to drop by about 0.4 percentage points in the near term ahead of the economic adjustment.
However, he called the 2% level “trend growth. That’s what we’ve been working on for 10 or 15 years in the financial crisis.”
“We’re seeing consumers continue to stay stable, which should be good for the economy,” Moynihan added. “There are a lot of problems out there, and I think that will solve it. But now, we’re not talking about what could happen, we’re talking about what’s going on. Consumers continue to spend a lot of money in the first part of the year.”
Fed
The interview was on the same day The Federal Reserve will make the latest decision interest rate. The market has few opportunities to reduce the meeting, and Moynihan backed the bank’s call that not only will the central bank not move on Wednesday, but will also be suspended in 2026.
“I think that while the Fed is a little cautious about cutting and does not know what the impact of tariffs will have,” he said. “It seems that maybe they want to stick to the firepower they have built over the past year or so … they shouldn’t be too early to increase economic growth when they are 2%.
Moynihan added that the “real interest rate” that keeps interest rates close to 3%, compared to zero-3% that is prevalent from the financial crisis.
