Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester told CNBC it’s “not unrealistic” to see some “really bad economic numbers” in terms of unemployment and economic activity declining. However, she added that the current downturn is “not a typical recession” as it happened in an otherwise healthy economy brought to a near standstill to fight the coronavirus.
“Part of the goal now is to offer the kind of lending and making sure the financial markets stay liquid and making sure they stay on a firm foundation and then bridging people from the economy, which in February looked very good … so that when we get to the other side of this … the economy and economic activity can come back,” Mester said.
“One of the things that makes us in a better spot than some other countries is that our banking system was strong coming into this,” she said. “One of the other actions the Fed has taken is to really encourage the banks to continue lending.”
