Stronger growth not generating major imbalances

After the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates by another 25bp, Fed Chair Jerome Powell claimed in the post-meeting press conference that “the economy is doing very well” – we couldn’t agree more. That view was bolstered by May’s retail sales figures, which suggested that both consumption and GDP growth will rebound strongly in the second quarter, to above 4% annualised. The Fed’s financial account data, released last Friday, illustrate that the economic expansion is not being accompanied by a sharp rise in private sector debt. Rising household wealth is prompting households to save less of their incomes and firms have plenty of resources to fund investment, not least thanks to the 2017 tax reform. The main vulnerability is a renewed surge in Federal debt, but even that wasn’t as bad as it looked, because it was boosted by the suspension of the debt ceiling and partly matched by a rise in assets held in the Treasury account at the Fed.