Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted that the United States will see a “substantial acceleration” in the economy in the first or second quarter of 2026.
Bessent’s comments came during an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. During the interview, Bessent also spoke about the rising costs of ground beef, which Omaha Steaks President and CEO Nate Rempe warned could reach “$10-a-pound by next fall,” according to the New York Post.
“I think we are going to see a substantial acceleration in the economy in the first, second quarter, and I think we are already seeing on many prices — as I said, we’re bending that curve down, and the increase in real income, I think Americans are going to feel it in the first quarter, second quarter,” Bessent said.
While Rempe had predicted during an interview with Fox News that ground beef prices probably would not decrease “until 2027,” Bessent pointed out that President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order lowering tariffs on imports such as beef and coffee, according to the outlet.
While Bessent cast blame on the Biden administration for the “terrible inflation,” he added that the Trump administration was working on “flattening it out.”
“We inherited this terrible inflation. We are flattening it out,” Bessent explained. “I believe we’re going to push it down. Energy prices are down. Interest rates are down.”
Along with predicting that the U.S. economy would accelerate at the beginning of next year, Bessent also remained hopeful that “in the first two quarters” of next year, the U.S. would “see the inflation curve bend down and the real income curve substantially accelerate.”
Bessent’s comments come after he stated, during an interview on Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, that in the first quarter or second quarter of next year,” inflation and income will “cross” as inflation goes down and real wages increase.
“Brian, imagine two lines,” Bessent told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade. “There is the inflation line; we’ve got that under control. It’s leveled out. That is going to start turning down. Then there’s the income line, which under Biden, because so many of the jobs or government jobs — you can’t get real wage growth from a government job — real wages are going to increase. And I would expect in the first quarter, second quarter of next year, those two lines are going to cross, and the American people are going to start feeling better.”
