Today, at 10:30 AM, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen will hold a press conference at the Treasury Department, where she will deliver remarks on her key priorities for the 2024 Annual Meetings. A livestream of Secretary Yellen’s remarks will be available here.
The following are excerpts from the Secretary’s remarks as prepared for delivery:
“Let me thank the IMF and the World Bank for hosting these meetings and all of you for attending today.
I’d like to start by stepping back and speaking about how far we’ve come. Three years ago when I attended my first Annual Meetings as Treasury Secretary, the COVID-19 pandemic was raging. Many of the events were virtual. The IMF had just revised downward its projections for global economic growth due to continued supply chain disruptions and new COVID variants.
Today, the situation is very different. Though progress across economies has been uneven, the global economy has proven resilient. America’s strong economic performance is leading the way as a key engine of global growth. At home, thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s economic agenda, we went from millions having lost their jobs to a historic labor market recovery. Unemployment is near all-time lows and U.S. real wage growth has outperformed that of most other advanced economies. U.S. economic growth has also been almost twice as fast as most other advanced economies this year and last, even as inflation came down sooner. As a recent Brookings analysis puts it, “the U.S. is significantly outperforming its peers.” We’re now working to sustain this momentum, including through major investments in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy that other countries have sought to emulate. This morning the IMF again upgraded its forecast for the U.S. outlook, as it did in 2023, when U.S. growth ultimately came in at almost double the IMF’s projection earlier that year.
Our Administration has also been focused beyond our borders. From day one, we rejected isolationism that made America and the world worse off and pursued global economic leadership that supports economies around the world and brings significant benefits to the American people and the U.S. economy.”
