White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow says he doesn’t see any reason that the economy won’t continue to grow at a robust clip of at least 3 percent far into the future.
“Money is flowing into the USA like never before. We are the hottest economy in the world,” the veteran financial guru and former Ronald Reagan adviser told CNBC.
Kudlow spoke shortly after the government said the U.S. economy fell short of the Trump administration’s 3 percent annual growth target in 2018 despite $1.5 trillion in tax cuts and a government spending blitz, and economists say growth will only slow from here.
A better-than-expected performance in the fourth quarter pushed gross domestic product up 2.9 percent for the year, just shy of the goal, Commerce Department data showed on Thursday.
“I'm very optimistic. The policies are working. I need to say that lower tax rates, deregulation, trade reform, energy reform. It's working,” said Kudlow, who worked as Reagan’s budget deputy between 1981 and 1985.
“These policies are working so I'm going to say 3% 2018 and I'm going to say 3% 2019 and 3% as far as the eye can see,” said the head of the National Economic Council that advises President Donald Trump.
“New business formations are strong, consumer confidence snapped back after the shutdown and maybe we'll get to the improved prospects for China trade,” said Kudlow, who served as the Trump campaign's senior economic adviser.
Meanwhile, Trump has touted the economy as one of the biggest achievements of his term and declared last July that his administration had “accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions.”
On the campaign trail, Trump boasted that he could boost annual economic growth to 4 percent, a goal that analysts always said was unachievable, Reuters explained.
“We are moving back to a sustainable growth pace that we experienced during most of the Obama years,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “With the tax cut impacts largely done with, it is hard to see how growth can accelerate sharply,” said Naroff, also a Newsmax Finance Insider.
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