Mortgage Industry News
« Return to Mortgage Industry News
Only Worst-Case Virus Scenario will Result in Recession
Friday, March 13, 2020
Fannie Mae's forecasts for the rest of 2020 took a bit of a hit from the
pandemic panic. The company's Economic Developments report for March contains a
downgrade to its earlier 2020 growth predictions from 2.2 percent to 1.8
percent. COVID-19 isn't the only villain in the picture, so is Saudi Arabia's
decision to dramatically increase oil production as well as the resulting
impacts from both on financial market volatility and consumer behavior. The company's Economic &
Strategic Research (ESR) Group says these negative developments will shave about
three-tenths of one percent from real gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
However, updated data and an increase in the short-run forecast for residential
fixed investment means, on net, first quarter growth has been revised down by
only one-tenth to 1.8 percent.n
January, a record low for that month.
Read Full Article