Jerome Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve has said in an interview with CBS’s ’60 minutes’ that job creation and growth are expected to increase as the US economy is at an “inflection point”. 

In a preview of the interview tweeted by CBS, Powell said, “What we’re seeing now is really an economy that seems to be much at an inflection point, and that’s because of widespread vaccination and strong fiscal support, strong monetary policy support.”

Opposed to the worrying remarks made by officials about the country’s economic recovery, Powell painted a more optimistic picture. 

Also Read: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says US COVID recovery ‘strengthening’

“We feel like we’re at a place where the economy’s about to start growing much more quickly and job creation coming in much more quickly,” he added. 

But there’s a catch. 

A positive economic recovery is possible only if America doesn’t a face relapse of COVID-19. The second wave of coronavirus “principal risk” to the economy, Powell said. 

“There really are risks out there. And the principal one just is that we will reopen too quickly, people will too quickly return to their old practices, and we’ll see another spike in cases.”

Also Read: US economic growth may rise to 6.5%, says Federal Reserve

“The principal risk to our economy right now really is that the disease would spread again. It’s going to be smart if people can continue to socially distance and wear masks,” he added. 

Talking about the US’ response to the pandemic, the Federal Reserve chief said that “more than 183 million vaccines” have already been administered as per data from CDC. 

Last month Powell had said increases in inflation would be temporary over the summer and are “not concerning for its monetary policy at this moment.” 

This comes after minutes released from the central bank last week underscored that it would be some time “until substantial further progress” was made on employment and inflation.

The central bank had said last week that it may take some time “until substantial further progress” was seen on inflation and employment, as released by minutes.