WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s chief economic adviser on Thursday expressed confidence that inflation would continue to improve in the second half of the year, and said it could drop to a range of 2% or slightly higher before the 2024 presidential election.
National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard told an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor that inflation had come down for 11 months in a row, and housing prices – which had been stubbornly high – looked set to come down “considerably” in the second half of 2023, given drops in new rental costs.
Prices for used cars, which had ticked upwards again recently, were also expected to improve, and Biden’s moves to lower the cost of insulin and other drugs would also have a positive impact, she said.
“There’s every reason to think” that inflation could reach the range of around 2% or slightly above 2% could be hit before the election, she added.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Franklin Paul)