The U.S. economy grew at a 2.3% rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said. But prospects for a solid rebound going forward are being clouded by rising worries about the rapid spread of the new omicron virus.
The third and final look at the performance of the gross domestic product, the nation’s total output of goods and services, was higher than last month’s estimate of 2.1% growth in the third quarter.
Now with the appearance of the omicron variant, coming on top of high inflation and lingering supply chain issues, there are concerns about future growth prospects. “History is repeating itself with the COVID virus suddenly reappearing and dampening economic growth prospects,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics and business professor Loyola Marymount University.
She said Oxford’s current assessment was that the resurgence of COVID could reduce growth next year from 4.3% to 4.1% and that if Biden’s Build Back Better program is completely derailed, that could likely shave another 0.4 percentage points in 2022, lowering it to around 3.7% and chop a half-point from growth in 2023, reducing it to below 2%.
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