Despite a dark year in 2020 due to the pandemic, growth jumped 5.7% last year, according to figures released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. But galloping inflation and the resulting deficits are worrying.
This record growth of 5.7% in 2021 in the United States is driven mainly by consumption: spending by American households, which represents almost three quarters of the country’s economy, exploded by almost 8% last year.
It is thanks to the checks they received as part of the vast plan to support the economy of the government that Americans have invested in products and real estate in particular, less in services which are still struggling.
But there is a flip side to this spending spree. According to the Commerce Department, imports rose 14%, while exports only took off 4.6%. This imbalance has created a record trade deficit: over $100 billion.
Galloping inflation in 2022
Supported by public aid, consumption also widened the American federal budget to 2,800 billion dollars in 2021, or more than 12% of gross domestic product, against 4.7% in 2019, before the health crisis, according to the ‘Congressional Budget Office.
Appeared in November, Omicron only began at the very end of the year to weigh on the American economy. The variant could however slow down activity at the start of the year, according to the American Central Bank (Fed). The institution also forecasts an acceleration of inflation in 2022, due to bottlenecks in supply chains to meet demand and labor shortages.