White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow predicted that the second-quarter GDP release Friday will live up to the mounting hype.
“You’re going to get a very good economic growth number tomorrow. Big,” Kudlow, head of the National Economic Council, told the Fox Business Network in an interview Thursday.
While he said he could not speculate on where the number will land specifically, he did not disagree with a suggestion that it would be in the 4 to 4.5 percent range.
“I have no reason to disagree with that, but I have no knowledge, no information,” Kudlow told FBN. “We won’t hear about that until way later today.”
Kudlow is the latest administration official to talk about an economic data point ahead of its release, something not historically common from the White House. President Donald Trump raised eyebrows in early June when he tweeted that he was “looking forward” to the release of the May nonfarm payrolls report, just an hour before it came out.
Economists are figuring gross domestic product for the three-month period to come in at 4.1 percent for the first reading, according to a Reuters survey. If that happens, it will be the best single-quarter reading since the third quarter of 2014, when growth registered a 5.2 percent gain, the high-water point during Barack Obama’s presidency.
Estimates vary on what the final number would be Friday. Barclays is on the high end with a 5.2 percent forecast, while CNBC’s Rapid Update survey of top economists sees a 4.2 percent increase. The Atlanta Fed is tracking at 3.8 percent, while the New York Fed is on the low end at 2.7 percent.
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