Nearly four in 10 Americans believe the U.S. will fall into a recession this year, according to a Country Financial security survey. (Photo by B Corbin/WJBC)
By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – What you don’t know can hurt you. That’s what one financial expert is saying in response to a survey on interest rates.
Only one in five Americans surveyed by Country Financial believe the Federal Reserve’s recent rate increase will help the economy, while one in 10 believe it will benefit them personally. Country’s director of wealth management Troy Frerichs said U.S. monetary policy is not a major headwind for economy his year.
“We are still so far below what I would call a normal interest rate environment,” Frerichs said. “We are still very close to zero and moving away from that is just going to take time. A lot of people don’t understand that.”
Frerichs added despite the rate hike, many are paying less to borrow.
“The global economy being in question to start the year has lowered a lot of those borrowing rates for individuals,” Frerichs said.
The survey shows even more Americans don’t know how the interest rate hikes will affect their finances, that’s especially true for millennials. For them, this is the first time as adults they’ve experienced a rate hike.
Thirty-six percent of those surveyed predict a recession in the U.S. this year.
Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.
