US economy 'roaring back' but pandemic 'still very much' front and centre

The US economy was "roaring" back but the pandemic remained very much front and centre, a top Federal Reserve official said.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, John Williams, reportedly said that: "The good news is the economy is roaring back.

"We're having huge gains in employment, unemployment is falling very quickly."

Nonetheless, he went on to add that: "We're still in a situation of a pandemic and Covid cases are high. They've come down in the last couple of months, but [...] that's still very much front and center."

Williams also acknowledged the surge in price pressures which had driven markets to move forward the expected timing of Fed short-term interest rate increases and noted that short and longer-run inflation expectations had risen.

Yet as far as the longer-term expectations were concerned, he said the gains were largely cancelling out past weakness.

Indeed, he believed that the rise in longer-term expectations was a "positive development", although "you wouldn't want those longer-run inflation expectations to move [...] significantly further up."

He also weighed in on the cryptocurrency space, saying that the sector could pose risks to financial stability over time.