New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is a former police officer, has revealed the United States is in recession with the stock market on the verge of collapse.
“We are in a financial crisis like you can never imagine… Wall Street is collapsing; we are in a recession,” Adams said at a New York event hosted by nonprofit Project Hospitality, as cited by Hamodia news outlet and reported by RT on Friday.
“You tell me what to take off the plate if you want me to put something else on the plate. I’m coming to you as a city and saying, ‘This is how much we have, that’s it,” Adams insisted, pointing out the scarcity of the city's resources.
Adams statements were in contrast with claims made earlier the same day by US President Joe Biden.
Biden claimed that despite the fact “the economy is slowing down,” Washington’s efforts to battle soaring inflation in the country put it “on the right path.”
Both Adams and Biden were commenting on official figures released earlier on Thursday that showed that the US economy has shrunk for two consecutive quarters, which is considered a sign of a recession.
The US Commerce Department data released on Thursday, showed American Gross Domestic Production (GDP) shrank between April and June.
The latest GDP shrink marked the second-straight quarter of economic contraction.
The Commerce Department’s first estimate of the US economy over the previous three months showed GDP falling at a yearly pace of 0.9 percent in the second quarter.
This means that the US economy would shrink by nearly 1 percent if the second quarter’s pace of growth lasted for an entire year.
“The US economy is struggling,” wrote Scott Hoyt, senior director at Moody’s Analytics.
“We now expect growth to struggle to reach potential both this year and next. However, we don’t believe the economy is in a recession,” he claimed.
The International Monetary Fund reported on Tuesday that the US was headed for a recession, with only a slim chance of escape.
"The current environment suggest that the likelihood that the US economy can avoid a recession is actually quite narrow,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas was quoted as saying.
The New York mayor later changed his comments, saying it was the US President’s prerogative to describe the state of the country's economy and he would follow the official line.
“The president will make a determination on the official title of where we are; that’s the president, and I follow the lead of the president. We’re dealing with tough economic times, but we’re going to get through it, because I trust in the president,” he told the media.