President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he did not believe the US economy will fall into recession either this year or next year, his most confident prediction on the fate of an economy that is still rattled by fears of a downturn.
Asked in an interview whether he thought there would be a recession this year, Biden responded: "No, or next year. From the moment I got elected, how many of the experts are saying within the next six months there's gonna be recession?"
Economists for months have been warning of a possible recession as the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates in order to tame decades-high inflation.
Biden himself has said a recession was possible, and earlier this week he told reporters that the risk was very low.
On the whole, economic data in recent months has moved in the president's favor, particularly after inflation spiked to a 40-year high last summer and government reports showed the US economy could be heading into a recession.
Strong job numbers last week, which occurred despite layoffs in the technology sector as well as in interest-rate-sensitive sectors like housing and finance, poured cold water on market expectations that the US central bank was close to pausing its monetary policy tightening cycle.
Kenya's government offered a temporary amnesty to undocumented East African nationals after hundreds of Burundians flocked to their country's embassy in Nairobi on Monday seeking travel documents, fearing a crackdown on small-scale traders from abroad.
Seven Indonesian airports, including two serving Jakarta, remained closed on Monday morning because of volcanic ash from eruptions at Mount Anak Krakatau, the transport minister said.
Bolivian authorities on Monday confirmed that seven people have died after an explosion on Friday at a military barracks in the Bolivian municipality of Viacha, about 30 km (20 miles) from La Paz.
Israeli strikes on a southern Lebanese town early on Monday killed at least 11 people, a day after seven people were killed and without an online evacuation warning from the military.
Grief-stricken Nepalis entered the last day of 13-day mourning period on Monday for the hundreds who died in the catastrophic flood along the country's border with China even as the government kept search operations going after four miracle rescues in recent days.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged into first place in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, exit polls showed, putting a far-right party within reach of power at the state level for the first time since World War II.
At least five people died when an Amazon Prime Air cargo flight overran a runway and crashed while landing at Miami International Airport on Sunday, local officials said.
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