US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday she did not expect a recession in the US despite rising energy prices and the war in Ukraine, and said Europe was “more vulnerable”.

“I really don’t expect the US to go into a recession,” he said at a news conference ahead of the G7 economy ministers meeting in Germany.

“I think Europe is perhaps a little more vulnerable and exposed than the United States on the energy front,” he said.

Yellen acknowledged that “the current environment is fraught with risks, both in terms of inflation and possible downturns” in the economy, but said she believes “the economic recovery is currently on a large scale”, including “extremely low unemployment”.

The US economy has experienced a strong economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, thanks in part to large federal stimulus packages.

But in recent months, inflation and disruptions in global supply chains caused by the war in Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic in China have slowed that momentum. The country recorded a 1.4% drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2022.

Despite this context, US leaders do not expect a technical recession, that is, two quarters of decline in a row.

Fears are greater in Europe, because the growth of the European Union is largely dependent on the energy supplied by Russia, and 27 countries are trying to leave it as much as possible.

In Germany, Europe’s largest economy, interruption of Russian gas supply will result in a 6.5% drop of GDP in 2022 and 2023, according to a study published last April by the country’s leading economic institutes. .