SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Employment and output will drop sharply this quarter, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said Wednesday, but if government programs are successful in getting cash to households and businesses to tide them over while people are staying home amid the pandemic, the economy could start to recover in the second half.
“It is the hope that this can be temporary,” Evans said in an online talk hosted by the Economic Club of Chicago, though the availability of a vaccine will be the best assurance of a sustained recovery.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir, Editing by Franklin Paul)
