U.S. Bancorp CEO says economy heading for “moderate” recession

(Reuters) – U.S. Bancorp’s Andy Cecere forecast a “moderate” recession that would be short and “not very deep in terms of severity,” CEO of the lender said at a conference on Tuesday.

He also said one more interest rate hike was expected from the Federal Reserve in the summer.

The Fed has been pushing up rates since last year to douse red-hot inflation, which has been stickier than what some had expected.

The relentless monetary policy tightening has raised the odds of a recession as consumers cut down on discretionary spending, which is hurting loan demand.

U.S. Bancorp is seeing a drop in loan demand in the second quarter compared to a year earlier, Cecere said.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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