25 min
Fitch Economist Olu Sonola Sees Mixed Bag for Corporates in 2024 Strategic Finance Lab
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- Business
Companies face cooling inflation but elevated wage growth amid a slowing economy with recession unlikely. In this episode, Fitch Ratings’ head of US Regional Economics Olu Sonola paints a relatively positive picture of the economic outlook in 2024, thanks in large part to the strength of the US consumer and declining inflation.
“The balance sheet of the US consumer is very, very strong,” he tells NeuGroup Peer Group leader Andy Podolsky in the podcast recorded in December 2023 and sponsored by Fitch.
This week, Fitch raised its annual real consumer spending forecast for 2024 to 1.3% from 0.6%, “reflecting the ongoing willingness and ability of consumers to draw down buffers of excess savings.” That said, Mr. Sonola forecasts that both consumer spending and US GDP growth will slow this year from 2023, with negative implications for corporate revenues, especially for companies whose customers are on the lower end of the income scale, he explains in the podcast.
Companies face cooling inflation but elevated wage growth amid a slowing economy with recession unlikely. In this episode, Fitch Ratings’ head of US Regional Economics Olu Sonola paints a relatively positive picture of the economic outlook in 2024, thanks in large part to the strength of the US consumer and declining inflation.
“The balance sheet of the US consumer is very, very strong,” he tells NeuGroup Peer Group leader Andy Podolsky in the podcast recorded in December 2023 and sponsored by Fitch.
This week, Fitch raised its annual real consumer spending forecast for 2024 to 1.3% from 0.6%, “reflecting the ongoing willingness and ability of consumers to draw down buffers of excess savings.” That said, Mr. Sonola forecasts that both consumer spending and US GDP growth will slow this year from 2023, with negative implications for corporate revenues, especially for companies whose customers are on the lower end of the income scale, he explains in the podcast.
25 min