Fed’s Clarida: U.S. growth could hit 7% this year

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth could hit 7% this year, Fed vice chair Richard Clarida said on Monday, as labor and other supply bottlenecks get resolved and the recovery accelerates.

“It looks like the economy if anything can pick up speed this year…We could have growth north of 6%, possibly 7%,” Clarida said in remarks to an Atlanta Federal Reserve conference. Current labor and supply bottlenecks, he said, are likely to pass, and evidence that “it may take more time to reopen a $20 trillion economy than it did to shut it down.”

(Reporting by Howard Schneider)